Sound and Silence

Every time I have invited writers to explore sound and silence I have encountered some amazing work. While music is evocative in so many ways, there is also something important about the simple sounds that make up our world. I invite you to consider what inspiration you can find in sound and silence.

This week my first year writing students and the Just Write Virtual Writing Group continued the final writing challenge of our “What If” journey which is an exploration of our personal values as part of the Morehead Writing Project‘s Building A More Perfect Union grant, Root Deep, Grow Tall. This final unit draws inspiration from Marvel’s What If animated series (and the butterfly effect), the #WalkMyWorld Project, and the National Writing Project’s American Creed (and personal values). This low-stakes personal writing journey offers my first year writers the opportunity to write out and through what is weighing on their hearts and minds while also exploring a variety of modes of writing and learning new rhetorical skills. It is my favorite thing and offers rich terrain for writing.

We began our writing journey with inspiration from Kalki Koechlin and wrote about the sounds of our own world both inside and outside our homes, traversing our neighborhood or community, and how we know we are home without opening our eyes.

We also considered Meditation for the Silence of Morning by Adam Clay to consider the role of silence in our lives. Where do we find silence? Do we welcome or fear silence? And what does silence look like? How does it move? What does it taste like? Can you touch it?

Our writing also explored the playlists, soundtracks, and music of our life drawing inspiration from Ira Perry, Jericho Brown, and Alina Stefanescu. And we wrote about the singers/songwriters and specific songs that have played an important role in our life – whether we were willing or not.

What can you write about sound and silence?

Image by Ilona Gr from Pixabay. I selected this image because one of my favorite responses to this invitation is when writers personify silence. Can you guess how I do?