---
title: "Naissance"
url: "https://ruthocallaghan.com/poems/naissance"
updated: 2026-10-12
description: "\"Naissance\", a poem by Ruth O'Callaghan from The Silence Unheard."
---

# Naissance

Only the sound beyond the ear’s reach\
beyond silence, soothes.

Washed by constant waters\
remembered, later, in the touch of wind on skin

in that first exhalation, first greeting\
first knowledge of lying

outside the silence\
the voice is heard, an instrument

whose sharps and flats desire interpretation\
the rough bark startling

– as it still does –\
indicates love or its faithful companion betrayal:

a kiss sword-sharp given in a midnight garden\
a sop of vinegar-wine

– not a malicious act –\
a rock rolled back, an empty cloth where hope also lies.

_From The Silence Unheard (Shoestring Press, 2013)_