Tag Archives: silence

Less Said

Posted on September 7, 2025 by John Biscello

I have no desire to sing tonight. This is the only line Samuel Beckett managed to write for a libretto which he abandoned. The smallest hours hold staggering volumes of silence.

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged libretto, opera, Poetry, Prose, samuel beckett, silence, text | Leave a comment

Beket

Posted on September 5, 2025 by John Biscello

My name is Beket. That’s my first name, and my last. My mother was going to name me Becky, after some character in a novel she loved, but when she saw how silent I was as a baby (she said … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged daughter, family, father, fiction, mother, name, reality, show, silence, story, voices, whatever, writer, writing | Leave a comment

Dinner

Posted on August 31, 2025 by John Biscello

I waited. We waited. A storm was coming. It had to be. He had returned from rehab several days earlier, after having been gone for two months. My father had always born pouchy bags under his eyes, but there, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged dinner, domestic, family, fiction, fragment, hunger, life, love, Prose, short piece, silence, story, writing | Leave a comment

Alone-In

Posted on February 19, 2025 by John Biscello

She grew infintely wet, a throbbing void and pulsing slate of Braille and intent– subletting, by touch, urgent spells of hunger to a silent fast.

Posted in Poetry | Tagged hunger, longing, poem, sensual, silence, touch, void | Leave a comment

Out of Silence

Posted on November 10, 2024 by John Biscello

Beckett spoke about it: the inability to keep quiet. The inability to not say stories, to not make stories, to not find oneself shaped according to stories fitted to shifting forms. Beckett, with gallows irony, talked plenty about silences. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged creation, death, fiction, language, loud within, Masks, samuel beckett, silence, story, voices, words | Leave a comment

Gloaming

Posted on February 7, 2024 by John Biscello

At twilight, the softly paling into summer plum sky, sliver of moon suspended like a bone-white boomerang in the distance, narrow street courting its void with dignity— What kind of dream is this, which reminds you there is nothing to … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged between worlds, dusk, fragments, gloam, japan, lucid, lyrics, poem, silence, street, twilight | Leave a comment

Holes

Posted on December 20, 2023 by John Biscello

Cut a hole in the wind and sing through it. Put your ear to the ground. Listen for the echo of what you sang. Cut a hole in ground and sing into it. Listen to the wind and hear your … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged echoes, ground, holes, musing, poem, Prose, silence, sketch, wind | Leave a comment

Angels

Posted on December 20, 2023 by John Biscello

Imagine snow. Imagine the symmetry of falling snow. Imagine the quiltlike cocoon of snow covering earth. Imagine the silence of snow sounding everywhere softly. Imagine you are old and cold in snow. Imagine you are young and running in snow. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged angels, musing, poem, Prose, silence, snow, symmetry, the dead, Winter, words | Leave a comment

Snowbound

Posted on December 18, 2023 by John Biscello

Go outside on a snowy night and record the sound of snow falling. When you have collected enough audio, go inside and play back the snow and try to find the hidden silences in its music. Lie down in bed … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged music, musing, night, poem, Prose, silence, sketch, snow, the dead | Leave a comment

Snow

Posted on December 16, 2023 by John Biscello

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged angels, dead, dream life, living, musing, poem, Poetry, silence, snow, snowdrift | Leave a comment