Some moments in life are defined not by what happens, but by what does not. They are shaped by choices we leave behind, by words we choose not to say, and by paths we decide not to follow. A door that remains closed—a job we never pursued or an invitation we quietly declined—can leave a deeper echo than one we deliberately shut. The apology we withhold, the truth we bury, and the call we avoid linger not because they ended, but because they never had the chance to begin.
Certain moments stay with us, not because of what was lost, but because of what was never acted on. The Echo of Almost gives voice to that suspended space, to the in-betweens that never found full expression, to the quiet that carries more meaning than movement ever could.
This poem reflects on meaning that once surfaced, trembled, and then dissolved into silence. In that quiet, memory does not vanish — it lingers, it waits.
The Echo of Almost
By Kerry Ann Wiley
The doorway was undecided.
It was not open wide enough to forgive,
and not closed enough to forget.
Dust lingered in the morning,
born of a name never spoken aloud,
and the silence that followed
when too much had been said.
Light moved through shadows,
a thread of the unfinished,
unwilling to let go.
The fence leaned
the way old promises do—
aching,
still holding,
waiting to be asked again
what it already answered.
The steps held the shape
of someone who stayed too long,
or not long enough.
The air leaned
neither forward nor back,
bracing around
what never fully arrived,
almost remembered as connection.
The light stood still
against the porch,
caught in the silence
after a door nearly closes
but does not.
No words crossed the distance.
Only the silence—
the kind that remembers sound
before a name,
in the ache
of the echo
of almost.
Reading the Silence
Rather than move on, this poem settles into the moment just before things become clear: the quiet before things are named. It draws us into the space between decision and indecision, between impulse and restraint. The tension doesn’t rise; it lingers, soft but unshakable, like something waiting to be noticed. The images do not push forward. They remain, holding what could not fully take shape.
The poem opens with the line, ‘The doorway was undecided,’ setting a tone of uncertainty that permeates the entire piece. A doorway usually marks a threshold: movement, choice, transition. But here, it remains in between, neither granting passage nor denying it. That uncertainty sets the tone, one of suspension rather than progression.
The physical details—the leaning fence, the still light, the bracing air—mirror this emotional uncertainty. “The fence leaned the way old promises do” is not merely descriptive; it suggests how intentions, even when faded or forgotten, can remain present. These images are more than metaphors; they are echoes, traces of something that almost took shape but stayed just beyond reach.
What Lingers
The poem’s quiet power lies in its restraint, inviting readers to linger in its stillness and discover their own fleeting moments before they slip away.
The expression “held the shape” transforms emptiness into substance: we envision footsteps left on the floor like shadows, as if absence itself can occupy space. By suggesting someone “stayed too long,” the poem assigns weight to that absence—an echo that lingers. The subsequent reversal, “or not long enough,” dissolves any certainty, leaving us suspended between two unresolved states.
This alternating syntax—statement followed by counterstatement—mirrors the way memories warp and rebound in our minds. Each phrase tugs against the next, and that very tension becomes the poem’s pulse. Effectively, the lines:
- Evoke a tangible imprint (“held the shape”)
- Warp time (“too long”)
- Undermine resolution with sudden absence (“not long enough”)
By withholding closure, the poem invites us to dwell in that uneasy midpoint. We carry the echo of footsteps that may still exist or may have vanished entirely. In that in-between space, memory feels both hauntingly present and dolorously gone.
The passage recasts silence not as emptiness but as a vibrant presence. Instead of a void, it contains the “traces of what almost came into being”—those half-formed thoughts or sounds that never fully emerged. By invoking “sound before a name,” it points to feelings that exist long before anything is put it into words or spoken. In this way, silence carries both the yearning for what might have been, what was never said—and perhaps never is.
What Remains
A subtle, persistent ache sits here like a question unanswered. It lies just beneath the surface, faint as footsteps that never reached the door, and lingers like light held at the threshold—fleeting yet felt.
It lives in the moments we never spoke of, the choices we nearly made, the feelings we came close to naming. And still, somehow, they shape us—quietly, almost imperceptibly—like light shifting in a room, sensed before it is seen.
The Echo of Almost holds that space where certainty never arrived. It honors what hovered just beyond reach: the ache of near beginnings, the quiet after nearly speaking.
What becomes of the moments we never stepped into, yet never truly let go of? There are doors we left unopened, names we never dared to speak aloud, and silences we carried without ever understanding why. These things do not vanish; they linger.
At times, they echo more loudly than the moments we have actually lived. What remains are not just memories, but outlines—faint traces of what could have been. These moments are shaped not by what is revealed or resolved, but by the subtle pause where possibility lingers and recedes. In that suspended space, where intent faltered and words held back, we don’t find emptiness, but form: the contour of a gesture never made, the shape of a truth never spoken.
The Echo of Almost doesn’t fade; it surfaces in pauses we can’t explain, and lingers in our hesitation, shadows our certainty, and haunts us—not with what was, but with what nearly was, and how deeply it remains within us.