SOUNDS OF SILENCE

Hello, darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again.
Because of a    vision softly creeping, left its seed while I was sleeping,
and the vision that     was planted in my brain still remains within the
sound 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 a neon light that split the night.  And
touched the sound   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 dares disturb the sound 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 rain-drops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence.

    And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made.  And the sign
flashed its warning in the words that it was forming and the sign said,  "The
    words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls,
and     whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

Paul Simon 1964.