At its essence, a poem is the pursuit of a moment. A compulsion to capture, distill, and examine the essence of experience. To trap it under glass and view it through a microscope that gazes past atoms and electrons to the true core of a time, a place, a feeling. We do this for one very specific reason – what can be captured, can be shared.
A poem is the connection linking souls between centuries – a DNA strand of words and images and metaphors designed to tear down the invisible layers that separate humanity by time and space, and communicate the intrinsic tensions that unite us. To say both to each other and the eons ahead – this is what I saw and this is how it felt – join me in this moment that has always and never existed.
The act of reading the poem only serves to create a new moment, fortifying this connection, even as time changes our perception of what that poem means – or rather, how we react to same words viewed through a different place in our own lives.
Poems can grow, you see. They can change shape when you’re not looking. You can read something at 20 and come back to it at 40 with a completely new lens. The moment continues to expand and retract, revealing itself in new ways to each reader. That’s part of its magic.
A poem is a moment in search of a song.
Allison Goldstein 