We want to know that we're not alone with our loneliness or loss.
Absurdity isn't quite so absurd as it once was.
I love poetry, read it a lot, but make no claim to being able to write it.
We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief.
I'm not even sure if empathy is an act, it could be a disposition.
The idea that language can be recombined to create new forms, new things, is of course very old in poetry.