Poetry – Words are not enough

Words are not enough

Words are not enough.

They never can be.

Words paint pictures

But do they connect?

Are the words the same

For you and me?

Can words do justice

To a majestic vision?

A leaf in words

Is not a leaf.

A sunset

Cannot be described.

I use my words to paint pictures

In your mind.

But they are pale imitations

Of reality.

We always fall short.

Even our reality

Is a pale imitation

Of what really is.

Our limitations

Make us fail.

Our senses are too few;

Our mind too little

Opher – 18.11.2019

I am always struggling with realisation that what we see is not real. The world is filtered through a limited number of senses. There is so much we do not see. Our minds interpret the electric patterns and turn them into pictures. But our minds are tiny; our perceptions limited. The world we see is not the world that is. It is so much less.

When we attempt to use words to describe the world we must always fall short – for even the greatest poet cannot use such limited symbols that connect in ambiguous ways, to describe a partially understood phenomenon. We must always fall short.