Silent white

Alwyn Marriage

When I open my eyes
to a wintry morning,
the light filtering
through my curtains
is white

but it's the silence
I notice first, the
unnatural stillness as
all normal sounds of
urban life are muffled.

I used to assume
this was my imagination,
but recently discovered
that acoustic science offers
a triple explanation.

Apparently, snowflakes
fill up all the spaces
where noises would
have squeezed between,
which means sound
can't pass through.

Air nearer to the ground
is warmer, so sound waves
curve up towards the cold
before evaporating
into silent space.

And finally when snowfall
settles on the ground,
the thick white winter
blanket effectively
absorbs all sound.

The Science

As described in the poem, there is an explanation for why the world falls silent under a blanket of snow. This piece explores the bias in the different ways we approach the sights and sounds of new snowfall.

The Poet

Alwyn Marriage’s eleven books include poetry, fiction, and nonfiction; she is widely published in magazines, anthologies, and on-line, and has won several competitions. Formerly a university philosophy lecturer and chief executive of two literacy and literature NGOs, she is currently the Managing Editor of Oversteps Books and a Research Fellow at Surrey University. She gives regular poetry readings and workshops in the UK and in many other countries around the world. Her latest poetry collection is In the image: portraits of mediaeval women and her latest novel is The Elder Race. Not just a philosopher and poet, Alwyn also has an MSc in Environmental Architecture and Advanced Energy Studies, and you can find out more about her work by visiting her website: marriages.me.uk/alwyn.

Next poem: The Human Virus by Robin Lamboll