As February continues on its merry way, I mention the Scottish poet Robert Burns, whose birthday we remembered towards the end of January.  Why Robert Burns?  Often known as the national poet of Scotland, Burns had a gift for clever verse and insightful observations which continue to speak to us today.
     Much has been written, by poets as well as those who read poetry, about the uniqueness of the poetic enterprise and how poetry remains a singularly transcending medium for every human being.  Prose can move us, of course, but poetry, with its dismissal of literary convention, often recondite phrasing, and mysterious statement and intimation, seems, to many, to eclipse prose in its ability to speak to our deeper sensibilities.

     Although some may lament the passing of rhyme as a poetic standard (most poetry written today has very little rhyming), this need not be a cause for distress.  As the world changes, so will we.  Different ages evoke different responses to the puzzles of existence.
     On the other hand, because the puzzles have not changed in all the millennia that humanity has strode across this planet, we are always indebted to those who explore them, however they do so.  Though we may recoil from some of their efforts, we can, in the big picture, marvel at the human ingenuity and imagination behind them, even in the face of what can appear as existential absurdity.
     But how can we believe that, in a blank universe, purpose exists?

     (By the way, I will be traveling in the West for the next week or so and will therefore not be posting.  Thanks for reading!)