A Refuge for Emotions

Day 8: A Refuge for Emotions That Could Not Be Put Into Words

Sometimes, people
cannot explain their feelings well.

Are they sad, lonely, angry,
or is something just slightly off?
They don't even know themselves.
But something is definitely moving deep within their chest.
If they try to put it into words, it feels like it might break,
and if they stay silent, they feel like they might lose sight of themselves.
Such emotions exist within people.

I think there are
too many things in life that cannot be fully explained.

The sensation that remains after a loss.
The reason why someone's words suddenly hurt.
Why one feels weak in front of that person for some reason.
Nights when you want to cry even though nothing has happened.
Memories that feel nostalgic but you don't want to return to.
The feeling that something hasn't ended yet, even though it should have.

Such things
cannot be contained
by clear words like "sad," "painful," or "happy."
The human heart is more ambiguous, more complex,
and has a quieter way of swaying.

That is why people
live while carrying places that cannot be reached by explanation alone.

Poetry,
I think, exists to touch those places.

Poetry does not organize everything neatly.
It does not rush for answers.
It does not fix meanings cleanly.
Rather, it gently places the contours of emotions that could not become words
so as not to break them.

Explanatory words
exist for understanding.
But the words of poetry
might exist to hold onto things that cannot be fully understood,
without losing them.

When people are in pain,
they immediately want to seek meaning.
Why did this happen?
Why does it hurt so much?
How should I organize this?
How should I accept it to move forward?
I think those are important questions.

But in truth,
there are emotions that don't need to be turned into meaning right away.

Things that are still painful.
Things that cannot be organized yet.
Things that are too early to draw conclusions about.
Sometimes, you need a place
where you can just leave such things as they are.
Poetry can be that refuge.

I used the term refuge because
human emotions are often
too fragile to be left as they are in reality.

They are judged as right or wrong.
They are called heavy.
They are dismissed as overthinking.
They are told to be more positive.
In that way,
soft emotions that have not yet become words
are easily left behind in the speed and roughness of reality.

But in poetry,
emotions are not rushed.
They are not pressured for conclusions.
Even if they aren't shaped into something useful,
it is okay for them to be there.

How much that saves a person,
I think those who know, know.

People name their emotions,
give them meaning,
and sometimes deepen their suffering by clutching them tightly.
But on the other hand,
trying to process them immediately
without looking at the emotions themselves
also makes the heart shallow.

Poetry might exist in the middle of that.
It doesn't clutch emotions too tightly,
but it doesn't discard them either.
It just looks at them as things that are there.
Even if you don't understand them completely,
you know you were feeling them properly.
That quiet work
can sometimes gradually return a person's heart to its original state.

I think people who write poetry
are not necessarily people who are strong with words,
but people who know of the existence of things that cannot be put into words.

An inexplicable silence.
A vague sense of discomfort.
Emotions that spill over when you try to convey them.
Knowing that such things truly exist,
without crudely labeling them,
I gently bring them close to words.

That is why poetry
leaves room for interpretation rather than providing information.
It places a presence rather than a conclusion.
To allow the reader to bring their own emotions into it,
it is intentionally kept a little ambiguous.
Within that ambiguity,
readers may sometimes encounter feelings they hadn't even realized they had.

This sensation is mysterious.
Even though they are words written by someone else,
the moment I read them,
I sometimes feel, 'This is about me.'
Something that had long remained unsaid
sometimes takes shape for the first time there.
At that moment, one feels
not so much understood,
but rather as if they have reunited with something they had lost sight of within themselves.

Poetry has that kind of power.

When living,
there are times when I dislike myself for not being able to handle my emotions well.
Why am I still dragging this around?
Why am I so sensitive?
Why can't I express myself well?
Why can't I pretend to be fine?

But in truth,
not being able to explain things well
does not mean your emotions are shallow.
On the contrary,
perhaps it is because they are so deep
that everyday language is simply not enough.

At such times,
poetry is very kind.
It tells you that you don't have to force an explanation.
It allows you to not understand yet.
Even while things remain unclear,
it accepts that it is perfectly fine for them to exist.

Poetry is
not a place to erase emotions.
Nor is it a place to be swallowed by them.
I believe it is a quiet sanctuary
where emotions can remain without breaking.

And strangely enough,
there are things about emotions that,
rather than trying to force a solution,
begin to unravel little by little
when they are properly felt.

Place sadness as sadness.
Place loneliness as loneliness.
Place nostalgia as nostalgia.
Even emotions that are too painful to bear as they are,
when placed within poetry,
begin to breathe just a little bit.

This is not because
poetry romanticizes emotions.
It is because it does not give them too much shape,
yet it does not abandon them either.

People are drawn to poetry
not because it is stylish,
nor because they like difficult expressions.
Perhaps,
it is because it saves the part of us that cannot be fully explained.

Living
is not always clear-cut.
It is also about continuing with daily life
while carrying emotions that cannot be put into words.
At such times, poetry,
even if it doesn't erase the difficulty of living,
gives that difficulty a place to belong.

People
do not recover because they have become able to explain everything.
When a gentle place is finally found
for emotions that had no words,
they sometimes begin to regain their breath little by little.

Poetry
might just be the language for that.

A sanctuary for emotions that had no words.
A place to put feelings that couldn't be fully cried out.
A temporary home for pain that cannot yet be made into meaning.
As such,
poetry stays by our side throughout our lives.

So if right now,
you cannot explain your feelings well,
you don't need to rush.
It's okay if you can't organize them yet.
It's okay if they don't become easy-to-understand words.

Those emotions
do not mean they don't exist.
They just cannot be touched by explanatory words yet.
And I believe that it is precisely those emotions
that poetry quietly draws close to.

Aphorism
Poetry is not a language for explaining emotions. It is a place where emotions that could not be explained can breathe without breaking.

Hiroshi Iwane

#HiroshiIwane
#TheTrueNatureOfLiving
#Day8
#PoetryIsASanctuaryForEmotionsThatCouldNotBecomeWords
#Philosophy
#Spiritual
#Essence
#Truth
#UnderstandingHumanity
#Consciousness
#Introspection
#Poetry
#Words
#Emotions
#LifePhilosophy

୨୧┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈୨୧

In our membership (first month free), you can read the series titled
"The Reason Why People Move".

୨୧┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈୨୧

Please see below for my self-introduction and vision.

The negative loop that elite executives fall into
↓
https://www.songbird.jp/_data/elite.pdf