(pick the first paragraph, and then the rest is strumming--until the last 3 words) 
 
Am                        G 
   Hello darkness, my old friend, 
                           Am 
I've come to talk with you again, 
                     F       C 
Because a vision softly creeping, 
                        F       C 
Left it's seeds while I was sleeping, 
        F                             C 
And the vision that was planted in my brain 
        Am 
Still remains 
           G        Am 
Within the sound of silence. 
 

                             G 
In restless dreams I walked alone 
                        Am 
Narrow streets of cobblestone, 
                   F        C 
'neath the halo of a street lamp, 
                          F        C 
I turned my collar to the cold and damp 
        F                                        C 
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light 
               Am 
That split the night 
                G        Am 
And touched the sound of silence. 
 
 
                         G 
And in the naked light I saw 
                           Am 
Ten thousand people, maybe more. 
                   F       C 
People talking without speaking, 
                   F        C 
People hearing without listening, 
               F                       C 
People writing songs that voices never share 
           Am 
And no one dare 
            G        Am 
Disturb the sound of silence. 
 
 
                         G 
Fools said i, you do not know 
                      Am 
Silence like a cancer grows. 
                     F           C 
Hear my words that I might teach you, 
                    F           C 
Take my arms that I might reach you. 
       F                           C 
But my words like silent raindrops fell, 
 
And echoed 
       G        Am 
In the wells of silence 
 
 
                         G 
And the people bowed and prayed 
                     Am 
To the neon God they made. 
                         F       C 
And the sign flashed out it's warning, 
                      F     C 
In the words that it was forming. 
                       F 
And the sign said, the words of the prophets 
 
 
    Am                    C 
Are written on the subway walls 
             C 
And tenement halls. 
                     G         Am 
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence. 
                    /                  /               
      Picking, here            to here