Hello darkness, my old friend,   I've come to talk with you again,   Because a vision softly creeping,      Left its seeds while I was sleeping!   And the vision   That was planted in my brain   The sound of silence...   Still remains   Within the sound of silence.   In restless dreams I walked alone   Narrow streets of cobblestone,      I turned my collar to the cold and damp!   'Neath the halo of a street lamp,      When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light   And touched the sound of silence.   It split the night...   The sound of silence...      And the people bowed and prayed   To the neon god they made.   Fools. said I, You do not know   Silence like a cancer grows.      Ten thousand people, maybe more.   And in the naked light I saw   People hearing without listening (listening)!   People talking without speaking,      System check!   Neon black!      In the words that it was forming.   The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls   And the sign flashed out its warning,   And tenement halls.   And whispered...   In the sound of silence.   The sounds of silence...   The sounds of silence!      The sounds...   Fools. said I, You do not know   Silence like a cancer grows.   Hear my words that I might teach you,   Take my arms that I might reach you