Hello darkness, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again.
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping.
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remas winsithin the sounds
Of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone, ‘neath the halo
Of a street lamp I turned my collar
To the cold and damp when my eyes were stabbed
By the flash of the neon light,
That split the night and touch the sounds
Of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening.
People writing songs
That voices never share
And no one dared disturb the sounds
Of silence.

‘Fools’, said I, ‘you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you’.
But my words like silent raindrops
Fell, And echoed in the wells
Of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said,
The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whispered in the sounds
Of silence.