Age of Empathy

We publish high-quality personal essays, humor essays, and writer interviews. Our goal is to provide a place for experienced writers to share authentic stories and connect with others, collectively celebrating a common passion, striving toward an age of empathy.

Member-only story

Thirsty for the Whisper

2 min readMay 20, 2022

--

photo: Marc Farre

I’m a relatively obscure writer, singer and songwriter. Like everyone else, I want to be received, listened to, heard, read. But I don’t need applause… anymore than the birds I’m watching now — perching, flying, singing, pecking for worms — need any applause from me.

The air I “fly” in is swollen with sound, memory, fragrance, and desire. The music I “hear” is swimming around somewhere in my blood. I’d love to declare that I simply write for the same reason that birds simply sing.

If only it were that easy.

There’s a constant clamor inside me demanding my attention. But I often don’t know how to separate the signal from the noise. Writing, for me, is a means of finding meaning — the whisper barely discernible amidst the noise.

I’m thirsty for that whisper. Thirsty for the through-line that connects me to the source of beauty and truth that I am always, consciously or unconsciously, seeking. It masquerades as sound, the perfume of the most perfect melody. It masquerades as words hiding behind the verses of a poem.

It masquerades as birds, as grass, as worms.

What would be the value of anything if you don’t have to dig for it… if you

--

--

Age of Empathy
Age of Empathy

Published in Age of Empathy

We publish high-quality personal essays, humor essays, and writer interviews. Our goal is to provide a place for experienced writers to share authentic stories and connect with others, collectively celebrating a common passion, striving toward an age of empathy.

Marc Farre
Marc Farre

Written by Marc Farre

Writer, recording artist, traveler, faux-polymath. Nothing human is foreign to me. marcfarre.com