questions without answers

I have sat through many Q & A’s after poetry readings and have always been bored. I am against Q & A’s; I believe the poetry audience should be allowed to sit with the feelings and imaginings evoked by the poetry itself, should go home with them, and let them nourish their dream life.

—Doug Anderson, essay “In Praise of Aporia,” published in Plume #164 April 2025 plumepoetry.com

lay bare

The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions hidden by the answers.

—James Baldwin, "The Creative Process" in The National Cultural Center's Creative America (1962), reprinted in The Price of the Ticket (1985)

one more question

I’m all for some Socratic doubt in a poem, but this poet had a question mark in every other line. Did the poet want the reader to write the poem by giving all the answers?

more than was asked

A poet who had smart answers to even the daft questions posed by the interviewer.

to know by echo

Critics: Literary latecomers with all the answers.