Silence

On a Still Morning
Nan Shepherd

I hear the silence now,
Alive within its heart
Are the sounds that can not be heard
That the ear may not dispart?

As white light gathers all – The rose and the amethyst,
The ice-green and the copper-green,
The peacock blue and the mist –

So if I bend my ear
To silence, I grown aware
The stir of sounds I have almost heard
That are not quite there.

Recommended

Pyrah, S. (2025, February 2). Quiet, please! The remarkable power of silence – for our bodies and our minds. The Guardian.

If I Get Time

Shepherd, N. (2008). The living mountain: A celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland. Edinburgh: Canongate. (Archive)

Shepherd, N., & Macfarlane, R. (2019). In the Cairngorms (UK ed. edition). Galileo Publishers.