Preface to poetry writing : A definition

Preface

ARS POETICA  by Archibald MacLeish (b. 1892)

 

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.