Thursday, July 2, 2015

'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.