Now You See It

by Ron Padgett

What you don’t see

helps you see what

you do see: the keyhole

sharpens the thrill

in your brain,

even if there is

no one

in the room,

shadows

wafting across

the white sheets

as a song drifts in

the window,

her voice so pure

you can see

the face it rises from,

for what you see

helps you see what

you don’t see.

From Collected Poems, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Coffee House Press, 2013, page 607. I see haiku as a sort of “keyhole” poetry. What’s seen and not seen in the poem helps you see the unseen.