The Poetry of the Unexplained

It’s been a long time – a hot, busy, uninspired summer, where I just didn’t have much to say. But yesterday I was musing, not for the first time, on what really makes the difference between poetry and prose. Is it not the unexplained?

In prose, at least well-written prose, everything is laid out for you. There is no guessing at meanings, no mystery. It’s all there. The beauty of good poetry, on the other hand, is what is left unsaid – the implied, the felt.

Life is often full of the unexplained. Mine has been, particularly the last year. Unexplained health challenges, relationship struggles, emotional upheaval. The ‘why’s’ sometimes overwhelm. I don’t understand, and I desperately want to, think I need to. But life is not prose. It is poetry – beautiful, and unexplained.

Now to remember that next time my heart is crying “why?”

Tags: contentment, peace, poetry, trust