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   Still remains   Within the sound of silence      In restless dreams I walked alone   Narrow streets of cobblestone   'Neath 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 sound 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   And no-one dared   Disturb the sound of silence      '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,'   But my words like silent raindrops fell   And echoed   In the wells of silence      And the people bowed and prayed   To the neon god they made   And the sign flashed out it's warning   In the words that it was forming   And the sign said 'The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls   And tenement halls'   And whisper'd    In the sound of silence