Archibald MacLeish

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.
 

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