1.13.15

There is a "cool story, bro" reason I wanted to post this today, but it doesn't really matter. Earlier I talked about our intro to poetry, what got us reading, or first favorites. I think I already posted one early favorite by Christopher Marlowe, but here is the one that has stuck with me the longest. It's probably overwrought, but I like it because it becomes what it says it will become. 




Ars Poetica by Archibald Macleish

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.