Post No. 218: A Candle Can "Sing," So To Speak!

(Image from Teach Peace Now)

A Candle Can "Sing!"

A Candle Can "Sing,"
Like Simon & Garfunkel's
"The Sound Of Silence!"

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., A Creative Writer)
"I maybe say too much about how life really is!"

My Writing Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: This poem is about the "sound," so to speak, that a burning candle makes, which is like the song "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel!

Plus, this poem was also inspired by "The Sound of Silence," which was written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel. (Please see the hyperlink below for the video.) By the way, "The Sound of Silence" was "originally titled 'The Sounds of Silence' on the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M."

And this poem was also published on my "Small All White in the Forest" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Small All White in the Forest."

This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.

-Paulee

https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com

Watch "Simon & Garfunkel - The Sounds of Silence (Audio)" on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/4fWyzwo1xg0

"The Sound of Silence" from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia—which is funded primarily through donations from millions of individuals around the world, including this blogger (I make a totally affordable one-time donation if they are requesting donations when I am on their website):

"'The Sound of Silence', originally 'The Sounds of Silence', is a song by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel. The song was written by Paul Simon over several months in 1963 and 1964. A studio audition led to the duo signing a record deal with Columbia Records, and the original acoustic version of the song was recorded in March 1964 at Columbia Studios in New York City and included on their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Released on October 19, 1964, the album was a commercial failure and led to the duo disbanding; Simon returned to England, and Art Garfunkel to his studies at Columbia University.

In 1965, the song began to attract airplay at radio stations in Boston and throughout Florida. The growing airplay led Tom Wilson, the song's producer, to remix the track, overdubbing electric instruments and drums. This remixed version was released as a single in September 1965. Simon & Garfunkel were not informed of the song's remix until after its release. The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending January 1, 1966, leading the duo to reunite and hastily record their second album, which Columbia titled Sounds of Silence in an attempt to capitalize on the song's success. The remixed single version of the song was included on this follow-up album.

It was featured in the 1967 film The Graduate and was included on the film's soundtrack album. It was additionally released on the Mrs. Robinson EP in 1968, along with three other songs from the film: 'Mrs. Robinson', 'April Come She Will' and 'Scarborough Fair/Canticle'. The song was a top-ten hit in multiple countries worldwide, among them Australia, Austria, West Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. Generally considered a classic folk rock song, the song was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically important' in 2012, along with the rest of the Sounds of Silence album. Originally titled 'The Sounds of Silence' on the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., the song was included in later compilations, beginning with the 1972 compilation album Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Silence

This "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" Post No. 218 was edited on August 12th, 2025.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]

My poems that are Haiku in their style—within which one stanza is composed of three lines, where each line has words containing five syllables, seven syllables and five syllables, respectively—are a lot more like Senryū poems in that the topic of these poems is typically about people, rather than the topic of these poems being about nature, as is usually the case in classic Haiku poems. And that is why I call these types of poems "Haiku-style." –Paul Whiting [September 19th, 2023]

Post No. 043: For My Family, Part 1 — The Candles Of The Sun

(Image from Hot Wallpaper)

The Candles Of The Sun

Come winter, come spring,
Come summer, or autumn,
In sunlight, in moonlight,
In downpour, or flurry,

When the fat lady sings,
Or the barrel's at bottom,
Though what's left isn't right,
Though our sanity may scurry,

Through the anguish of pain,
Through the anguish of bliss,
When the truth tears us apart
And then makes us whole,

After all we have gained,
After those we still miss,
Despite the love in our hearts
We sometimes don't show,

We are family forever.
We are kindred. We are one.
No distance can divide us—
We are the candles of the sun!

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., A Creative Writer)
"I maybe say too much about how life really is!"

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My Writing About The Candles Of The Sun: Come winter, come spring, come summer, or autumn, in sunlight, in moonlight, in downpour, or flurry, when the fat lady sings, or the barrel's at bottom, though what's left isn't right, though our sanity may scurry, through the anguish of pain, through the anguish of bliss, when the truth tears us apart and then makes us whole, after all we have gained, after those we still miss, despite the love in our hearts we sometimes don't show, we are family forever. We are kindred. We are one. No distance can divide us—we are the candles of the sun! –Paul Whiting (written date unknown, then turned into 'my writing' on September 19th, 2023)

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My Writing Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: I used to give poems as Christmas gifts! And I wrote this poem for my family for Christmas one year—although I don't remember which year it was.

You see, gift giving at Christmas was always really stressful for me, because I was usually poor, so that is why I would write heartfelt poems, like greeting cards, that were holiday-like enough to be used as Christmas gifts and I would give them in photo frames that I bought from the dollar store.

Eventually, however, my immediate family (that is, my two brothers and two sisters-in-law, my sister and brother-in-law, and my parents) decided to stop exchanging gifts amongst the adults, but to still keep giving gifts to the grandchildren, which made Christmas a lot less stressful!

And this poem was also published on my "Three Dark Horses" and "Small All White in the Forest" blogs (please see the hyperlinks below for the blogs), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message I am trying to convey through "Three Dark Horses" and "Small All White in the Forest." Plus, I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message I am trying to convey through my new "The Oneness Of God" spiritual practice!

This poem was written in Salt Lake City, Utah.

-Paulee

https://threedarkhorses.blogspot.com

https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com

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This "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" Post No. 043 was edited on April 26th, 2026.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]