The Power of Negative Space: What's Left Unsaid in Poetry

Guide 5

When dealing with visual art of any type, negative space is the breathing room around and between subjects…the white canvas that gives shape to the painted image. In poetry, this concept translates into something equally profound: the unwritten, the implied, the carefully crafted silence that whispers between words.

Most beginning poets believe that poetry is about saying everything, about capturing every nuance of emotion and experience in elaborate language. But the most powerful poetry often does the opposite. It understands that meaning isn't just constructed—it's suggested, hinted at, allowed to bloom in the reader's imagination.