Detours

＂＂If you ever found yourself in the wilderness at night, with only a torchlight and perhaps a campfire to illuminate your way, you know how staring into the glare will make you blind, you know how you need to look at an angle to see what’s hiding in the dark, how, when they don’t suffer the barrage of intense light, your eyes become able to pick up details here and there, make sense of shapes, and connect the dots. Sometimes you need to look away to see clearly. Poetry invites readers to look at life through another set of lenses. It casts lights and shadows, puts up smoke and mirrors, to give the audience a chance to look away from the obvious and observe the filigree. And if it does not answer any questions, if it does not solve the great riddle of existence, if it only makes something pretty to look at, that’s okay too.Sometimes the direct path is not the best. Sometimes you need detours.＂＂