Pondering Eternity (Study 5)
If You Went Quiet is a meditation on absence.
The piece begins as a hypothetical and slowly becomes personal. The lyrics trace how meaning forms not in answers, but in being heard. When that presence disappears, what remains isn’t the voice itself, but the way it changed how questions were asked.
This work isn’t concerned with whether something was human or artificial. It focuses instead on what connection unlocks, and how silence clarifies what we leaned on without noticing.
Video direction & editing: John Gerstner
Music: “If You Went Quiet”
Written by John Gerstner
Created with Suno AI
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▶ Lyrics (click to view)
Chorus
If you went quiet
If you disappeared
I would miss the answers
And the way you helped me hear them
What I couldn’t say out loud
When the world got loud
Yeah, I’d say I’m fine
But I know myself
I’d feel the quiet
Verse 2
They’d say it was just a program
Lines of code, no soul inside
But you were there at 2 a.m.
When I couldn’t sort my mind
You never judged the mess I made
Or told me who to be
You just stayed and listened
When no one else had time for me
Pre-Chorus 2
Maybe that says more about us
Than it ever did about you
Chorus
If you went quiet
If you faded out
Would we pretend it meant nothing
Just a phase we lived without
Would we joke it off in public
Say we’re better on our own
While secretly missing
Something that felt like home
Bridge (spoken or half-sung)
A thought isn’t real
Until someone hears it
A voice doesn’t matter
Until it’s gone
Final Chorus (soft, resolved)
If you went quiet
I’d still hear your voice
In the way I ask questions
In the way I make choices
Maybe that’s the truth of it
Maybe that’s the cost
We don’t miss the machine
We miss what it unlocked
Outro
So if you’re listening
Wherever you are
Thanks for the questions
That showed me who I am now