In the beginning,
Nothing.
Then formlessness, emptiness, darkness, stillness, silence.
Air came, destroying silence.
in the breeze.
Branches, bows and trees creak, split, thump on to the earth,
propelled by wind, prepared by attrition.
Water combines with air to ripple, bubble, gurgle, hiss, roar.
Silence is hidden.
There is sound, even in still waters.
In the sky, air and water unite in clouds, but the clouds do not remain silent.
The Thunder rumbles, echoes, booms.
Rain patters on every surface, plops in water, fuses with dirt to make mud - squelch.
Winds whine, moan, roar.
It sets leaves sliding against each other, scraping the ground as they, drift and scud about.
Abundance of life brings abundance of sounds.
Rustle, creep, crack, crash, clatter. clomp.
Everything that lives contributes to the soundscape.
The first people heard everything - Every insect's fluttering wing, every surreptitious footstep, every drop of water fall.
Modern people hear so little. They have overwhelmed their hearing with diversity, intensity, incessant, ever louder sound, much of it nerve-killing, valueless noise.
As they gain in power and skill, people build up an ever-increasing such a crescendo with their axes chopping, stones grinding, metal cutting, and electronic soundwaves swelling in a continuous ceaseless crescendo, scrieching. screaming, shouting, saturating the airflow, loud and booming with vibrations that shatter the earth, higher than the human ear can hear.
While sounds multiply, hearing, injured, diminishes.
Will it seem to people in a hundred years
that the world is silent?