Ars Poetica
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown -
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind -
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs
A poem should be equal to:
Not true
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea -
A poem should not mean
But be
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Sound advice for any of the visual arts too.
3 comments:
I dig the sentiment, but the slant rhyme makes me grit my teeth.
<--- poetry bitch
I love the poem, but the advice is useless. Sure, a poem ought to "be", but it ought to be something more than just something that is.
Geoffrey, you mean Somerset Maugham quip that "Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake."
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