The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #61872 Message #2813191
Posted By: Lonesome EJ
15-Jan-10 - 07:35 PM
Thread Name: A Poet's Advice - e. e. cummings
Subject: RE: A Poet's Advice - e. e. cummings
My favorite advice.....
Ars Poetica
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
Archibald MacLeish