Lonely silence,
a single cicada’s cry
sinking into stone   (Basho)

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How unusual to associate sound with stone. The poets creates an intermediate zone where sense data is mixed in unfathomed ways to come up with a new sense that no single sense can be conscious of. The poet plays with sense portals like a child running through the house opening and shutting doors. A sound sinks into stone. Or is it silence that is stone. What is more lonely than stone. What is more still than stone. We listen to cicada’s cry and it does sink into stillness…it is the cry that creates the stillness. Without the cry you would not know stillness. The poet describes silence with sound. A noise with stone.