Experience forms understanding

Never forget the sum of who we become

Is life experience in additions

Adding advantage or disadvantage with prejudice

This collected sum of knowledge,

Can be disconcerting when in context

As exposure to experience is individual

And individual knowledge is limited

The view may only expand in this knowledge

Humanity becomes the tool of choice

Weaving together this patchwork to connect

Creating a join in these experiences

Where dominance by one patch cannot be

As the whole story is only revealed

When the quilt is spread out on even ground

And the quilt of humanity becomes shared

By the warmth of understanding 

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Experience forms understanding speaks to empathy as something built, not assumed — suggesting that only by honouring the uneven realities of lived experience can a fuller, more humane understanding emerge.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.