Ineffability and the Ineffable

The Party Line

By Dennis D. Gagnon

It appears that using words

To convey an experience of that preceding words

is futility at its best.

Thus a poem,

Being the quintessentially literate intercourse,

is doomed to failure in transmission of the fundamental aesthetic.

Though it is experienced

In a most immediate and constant manner,

One cannot describe the preexistent reality

From which we all proceed.

In coming before words,

It is Non-Being.

From which all issues forth,

It is Being.

The paradoxical combination

Of Non-Being and Being

Is a mystery.

It alludes linguistic constraints,

Yet it demands our direct awareness.

At best we can say

“It is This.”

Yet, I cannot say

What the This is.

But isn’t This wonderful!