Brady DeHoust -- A Nice Little Meta-Poem

An anonymous poet once wrote:

In poetry,

Words

Are merely paint

Thrown on an

Invisible shape,

The Art

I think that this is an intriguing and profound characterization of poetry. The thing communicated is never fully and completely revealed and made manifest in the language of the poem; it is not made substantial, it is only suggested by strategically chosen words which highlight parts of the thing and not others. This poem seems slightly ironic, since at first glance it seems to be much more straight-forward and unambiguous than it characterizes poetry (i.e. itself). But the poem offers not only an idea of poetry, but potentially an interesting characterization of verbal communication in general. Communication is fundamentally reductive. Reality is never fully captured by words. Perhaps that is what makes poetry so beautiful and powerful. It recognizes the fact, and so chooses the color and precise location of the “paint” in a conscious effort to reveal something about the “shape” (reality or some such). In that sense, perhaps this poem is precisely the right one to say what it means, nothing more, nothing less. Perhaps it is up to the reader to judge.