the space between

between the question

and

the answer

there is a space

whether it is
the blink
of an eye

or

an
interminable
stretch

this is the place
where we all
live


every birth
is a question

every death
is an answer

and life
is the state of
joyous uncertainty
that hovers
in the air
between every breath
of our universe

Note: I normally love using standard capitalisation, but somehow it didn’t feel right to have a hierarchy of typographical importance for this poem.

Ever since I was introduced to the idea of liminality (essentially, a state of in-betweenness) in grad school, I have loved it. It’s a beautiful word for a beautiful idea – not to mention that it made me feel rather clever to understand what people were talking about.

The idea for this poem came from an initial set of three lines that came to me while writing a journal entry: ‘Between the question / and the answer / is a liminal space’.

But when I sat down to actually flesh this out into a poem, it felt somehow pretentious to use this word. Leaving that emptiness unlabelled felt better for the poem, and more authentic to the universality of this experience.

As someone who loves words, I always like finding the particular, perfect descriptor. But it also fascinates me both within poets and lyrics how sometimes taking out that word can open even more profound possibilities.

Photo by Nick Grappone on Unsplash