The best poems are ineffable

The poem in Tell me Something I don’t Know by Jim Culleny (3QuarksDaily) isn’t deeply thought-provoking or revelatory but it does what poetry does best: it seems to distill meaning from elegantly juxtaposed words.

“Tell me how to weave
tomorrow into yesterday
without tangling, without
strangling today”

You see? I love it but I don’t know what it means. Not yet.

A poetic friend wrote to tell me that,

“About the poets and their words. Can you ‘know’ what they mean? Nope! Like a good question maybe we can “die Fragen selbst liebzuhaben” and one day find ourselves walking into the answer or meaning/those coordinates. 💃”

Yes, yes, yes. 💯 We each imbue words such as these with our own meaning. They at once haunt and promise something, implying meaning that feels like it would be so powerful if only it could be fully grasped. But that feeling is fleeting, escaping again and again, whenever it’s considered too directly. Far better to sidle up to it—again: again and again—each time getting a better look out of the corner of your eye, before, as you say, “walking into the answer”.

Patience.

Meaning will come.

Or not.

You don’t have to sweat it if you can make the journey worthwhile.