Syria: Perhaps only poetry can make sense of it

It’s international poetry month, and my response to the violence in Syria came from a place that could only be expressed with a poem.

What’s happening?

I have no idea.

Those who claim to know

can never make peace.

Why not give each other

permission to rest

in the eternal wisdom

of “I don’t know”?

Why not thirst for peace

so deeply that it

bursts beyond knowledge

like a hidden spring

from your own breathless

broken heart?

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Syria: Perhaps only poetry can make sense of it."