Hello darkness my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again.
Because a vision softly creeping
Left it's seed while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sounds of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone,
Through narrow streets of cobble stone.
Beneath 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 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 shared,
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 gods they made.
And the sign flashed out 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."