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"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." ~ Anton Chekhov

My husband was perusing the Facebook newsfeed, and he came across this quote that I shared so generously from Good Reads.

"What does that mean?," he asked.

"What do you mean?," I said. "It's poetry."

"Why did he use broken glass? I don't get it."

"Each word is significant. I just thought it was nice."

Getting frustrated with my lack of any kind of help for him to understand, he had a bit of a tissy, so I left the room so he could finish his coffee and just get over it.

The thing I love about poetry and just words in general is that they can mean something different for everyone. I couldn't really *tell* someone and force the meaning of those words that were in that particular sequence because that is something I believe  people need to feel for themselves.

That quote struck me when I first read it, and I had to share it. Taylor's question (and subsequent irritation) got me really thinking of the reason why it meant something to me. So when I went back downstairs, this is what I told him:

What is the moon? The moon is the silver light in the vast darkness. It is the promise in midst of hopelessness. Now what does "broken glass" signify? Something shattered, whether it be a heart, dreams, or a soul. It's a tragedy. What my friend Anton is trying so eloquently to say is that he doesn't want you to simply tell him that not all is lost, that everything he thought was broken will realign itself. He wants to see, to be shown, with his own eyes, proof of the glimmer of that hope of which you speak. He needs to see it among the shattered, blackened tragedy he's experiencing in order to believe in it.

That's what it means to me.