prodigal kiwi has blogged this poem from arsenal pulp press site. seemed like a good one for lent…

The gap in traffic on the highway, the empty lot between high-rise buildings, the vault-ceilinged expanse in the gallery, the white margins at the edge of the page.

As an architectural concept, space is both that which is filled and that which is not. What we might not realize is that empty space may be more important-it gives us a chance to notice what surrounds us.

Space gives us room to move, to breathe, to grow. Without it we wouldn’t witness reactions-chemical, emotional, aesthetic. That gap is necessary for elements to combine: like the space between protons and electrons, between words on a page, between a reader and a book.

And space means time. Time to travel the highway, ford the open lot, cross the room, traverse the white border. Nothing happens in an instant and there is lots to see-to experience-on the way. If we rush too quickly we’ll never know what we missed.

Don’t be afraid of space. It gives you time to have an effect, make an impact.

And that’s a good thing.