Poetic Closure & Endings

How a poem ends determines how readers remember it. A great ending resonates. A weak ending deflates everything before. Your final lines are your last word with the reader.

Endings can be: resolution, ambiguity, return, twist, quiet, or explosive. "The rest is silence" is perfect understatement. Dylan Thomas ends with urgency. Rich ends with questions. Each works because it matches the poem.

Don't resolve everything. Don't explain. Don't add morals. Trust your reader. The best endings leave something to hold, to question, to live with.