Ineffable

Poets, musicians, writers of all kinds take on the ineffable. Just now I'm thinking about Henry Miller's clown character in "Smile at the Foot of the Ladder," that is, perhaps, where I first saw the word in print (?). Right now reading a biography of the great, great Wisconsin poet, "Lorine Niedecker; A Poet's Life," I am constantly reminded of how poets go within this area of description by the poems given in the text.

So much of life is indescribable, and yet we have to try to describe. Looking up at the clear, winter night sky last night I was completely dumbfounded by what I saw. Describe it? I might have to be a Lorine Niedecker or Henry Miller to pull that off. But then it needn't be described, perhaps just pointed to. Luckily we had the electric coop take our the yard light a few years ago, and so the so-called "stars" are there.

The sad fact of our lives is that so much in our media/electronic world view is not ineffable, is all too commercial, literal, "in your face." Sometimes on PBS the indescribable is present and much appreciated. Scientists too appreciate it and present it in their programs. May I suggest that you share your appreciation of it with young people and children, so that they will pass on this appreciation to those to come. Thank you.