Let It Live

Never kill a question;

 it is a fragile thing. 

A good question deserves to live. 

One doesn’t so much answer 

it as converse with it, 

or, better yet, one lives with it.

 Great questions are the permanent 

and blessed guests of the mind. 

But the greatest questions of all 

are those which build bridges to the heart, 

addressing the whole person 

No answer should be designed to kill the question. 

When one is too dogmatic, or too sure, 

one shows disrespect for truth 

and the question which points toward it. 

Beyond my answer there is always more,

more light waiting to break in, 

and waves of inexhaustible meaning

 ready to break against wisdom’s widening shore. 

Wherever there is a question, let it live! 

(Frost, 1974, p. 31)

There will be some silence in any class,

 Sometimes it may be just dead silence

 with nothing happening. 

This is a terrifying thing; 

one can only ask the spirit to brood over it, 

creating again, repeating the first miracle, 

turning nothing into something. 

But there are other silences, 

the silence of reflection, 

of confession, or reaffirmation, 

or, the silence of recognition, 

affection, opposition, 

or even the silence of struggle 

and decision . . . . 

(Frost, 1974, p. 72)