Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk to you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And a vision that was planted in my brain Still remains within the sand, a silence In restless dreams I walked alone Narrow streets of cobblestones Neat 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 spell 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 share No one dared disturb the sound of silence Fool said I, you do not know Silence like a can of sugar roll Hear my words that I might teach you Take my arms that I might reach you But my words like silent raindrops fell And they hold in the wells of silence And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And the sun flashed at its warning In the words that it was forming And the sun said the words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And gentlemen laughed and whispered in The sounds of silence