---
title: |
    Something about all music being performances of _4'33"_
    in places where other bands happen to be playing
genre: verse

dedication: |
    [Randall](https://xkcd.com/1199/)

project:
    title: Stark Raving
    css: stark
    order: 18
    next:
    - title: Riptide of memory
      link: riptide_memory
    - title: About the author
      link: about-the-author
    prev:
    - title: The Moon is drowning
      link: moon-drowning
    - title: The Sixteenth Chapel
      link: sixteenth-chapel
...

Silence lies underneath us all in the same way \
the Nile has a river underneath ten times as large \
(although this is an urban legend, apparently).

So underneath truth or legend, flowing by \
the feel of their own silence, move the stars: \
silence lies underneath us all in the same way.

John Cage, I think, understood this: the way \
that, in a silent room, one still hears the nerves \
(although this is an urban legend, apparently),

or the heart, which I find more easily \
believable: there simply is no way that, by and large, \
silence lies underneath us all in the same way.

There must be different silences, because we \
have different songs to drown them out, different gods \
(although these are urban legends, apparently).

But is not all sound one sound? You and I \
are two faces to the same head, the same body. \
Silence lies underneath us all in the same way--- \
although this is an urban legend, apparently.