Words that Make Their Own Music

Defining beggars description,

Description leans on anecdote,

And anecdote atomizes--

Poem for poem, back where we began.



Can we claim that anything counts

As poetry if we claim it?

Everything counts but not enough.

It's not just what we say it is



Or is not. And what should it be?

Every should is a social should,

And poetry should be social,

But so should all the language arts.



It's usually unusual,

We recognize it as special,

One of the synonyms for life,

Genius, that blasted unicorn,



A dream thing known but never caught.

It's what poets write poems about 

The ones no one else cares about,

Except poets and their mothers,



Or some of their mothers at least,

The sort of poems that start off strong,

With titles like sunlit water,

Hinting at deep green clarity



But blurry and unrevealing

Of anything but the shadow

Of the swimmer squinting down, down

In search of some profundity.