This poem reflects on situations that
resist easy solutions.
Rather than seeking quick answers or
clear outcomes,
it turns toward presence, shared
uncertainty, and sustained involvement—
asking what it might mean to care
without forcing resolution.
Unresolvable
Difficult to resolve.
Do we leave them isolated?
The limits of self-help.
Difficult to resolve.
Do we leave it unattended?
The limits of community welfare efforts.
Difficult to resolve.
Do we pass it along entirely?
The limits of governmental systems and
policies.
We choose not to force a solution.
We do not abandon those who carry problems.
We do not ignore those who cause problems.
We do not condemn those who look down on
problems.
We choose not to argue over the rightness
of solutions.
Without strain, we worry together with that
person.
Without haste, we think together with that
person.
Without tension, we try things together
with that person.
We choose not to demand results.
Through involvement, welfare becomes
something close at hand.
Through the process of involvement,
people and communities are connected by
welfare.
And those who are involved
begin to deepen their questions about
welfare itself.