What makes a poem
a poem?
Is it the ungraspable meaning
that flows throughout the piece?
Or the rhymes that dance around?
What makes the poem
a being of emotion,
of feeling,
of spirit?
Is the way that it’s written
the key to success,
or is it the author’s imagination
that breathes life into the words?
Can the detail
in the stanzas
make the images
come alive?
Or are the pictures locked,
forever dead in the coffin
of writing?
Does poetry kill the words
that it so faithfully uses?
Does it lock up a thought-
or express it to the world?
a poem?
Is it the ungraspable meaning
that flows throughout the piece?
Or the rhymes that dance around?
What makes the poem
a being of emotion,
of feeling,
of spirit?
Is the way that it’s written
the key to success,
or is it the author’s imagination
that breathes life into the words?
Can the detail
in the stanzas
make the images
come alive?
Or are the pictures locked,
forever dead in the coffin
of writing?
Does poetry kill the words
that it so faithfully uses?
Does it lock up a thought-
or express it to the world?
“
| — | Elliott Guiso |
