You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You

“You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can’t imagine something that has never existed before, it’s impossible.” Thus spoke Rita Dove, the poet of vision and remembrance, whose words illuminate one of the oldest truths of the human soul: that imagination precedes perception. For the eyes alone are blind without the mind’s capacity to believe. Dove reminds us that what we call “seeing” does not begin with sight, but with faith in possibility — the inner conviction that something new, something unprecedented, can indeed exist. Before humanity builds, it must first dream. Before truth is recognized, it must first be imagined.

The origin of this truth stretches deep into the roots of creation itself. From the first inventor who looked at fire and saw not destruction but warmth, to the astronomer who looked at the heavens and saw not lights but worlds, progress has always been born from imaginative vision. Rita Dove, both poet and philosopher, speaks not merely of artistic creation but of all acts of revelation — for whether in art, science, or life, the unseen can only be perceived by those who believe it could be seen. To imagine is to open the mind’s eye; to refuse imagination is to remain captive to the obvious.

History is filled with those who had the evidence before them, yet could not recognize it because they lacked imagination. When the first physicians spoke of unseen germs, the learned laughed, for they could not picture what the eye could not detect. When Galileo pointed his telescope to the heavens and declared the earth a wanderer among stars, many denied it though the truth shone plainly through the lens. The evidence was before them — yet the prison of their imagination kept them blind. Dove’s words remind us that the barrier to discovery is not ignorance, but the refusal to believe that something greater could exist.

And yet, this is not a call for reckless fancy, but for courageous vision. Imagination, as Dove speaks of it, is not delusion but perception in its highest form — the ability to see potential within the real. The sculptor looks upon stone and sees a face; the engineer looks at the horizon and sees bridges; the poet hears silence and imagines a song. Each creation begins as an act of inner seeing, a spark in the darkness. The world belongs to those who do not wait for proof before they believe, but who believe first, and by that belief, bring proof into being.

Consider the Wright brothers, standing upon the sands of Kitty Hawk. Around them, the world laughed. Man, they said, was not meant to fly. And yet, the brothers saw something the others could not — not with their eyes, but with their imagination. They saw the possibility of flight even before it existed, and that vision guided their hands and hearts until it became real. The laws of nature had not changed; only the laws of thought had. In their belief in the unseen, they brought humanity into the sky.

Rita Dove’s insight also carries a deeper, spiritual truth: that perception itself is shaped by imagination. To see goodness, one must first believe it exists. To see opportunity, one must imagine it hidden within difficulty. Even love — that most sacred of human experiences — is an act of imagination, for to love is to see in another not only what is, but what could be. Thus, the one who cannot imagine beauty, growth, or redemption will never recognize them, even when they stand before him. The eyes only confirm what the heart has already conceived.

Therefore, dear seeker of wisdom, let this teaching dwell within you: imagine before you see. Do not wait for proof to dream; let your dream summon proof. The evidence of possibility may already lie before you, waiting only for the courage of your imagination to awaken it. Train your mind as one trains a muscle — to envision, to create, to believe beyond what is visible. Walk as those who know that every new world, every new truth, every act of greatness begins first as a whisper of thought.

For as Rita Dove teaches, reality itself bows to those who dare to imagine. To see the unseen, to bring forth the unmade, to transform impossibility into being — this is the highest calling of the human spirit. So, think boldly, dream widely, and look not only with your eyes, but with the vision of your imagination. For the world you can imagine is the world you are already beginning to create.