Esemplastic Power

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

A fish that nearly fills Antarctic seas,

Its oceans, quite as much, a thousand miles

Across, swims nearly large enough to please

A poet’s breathing.  Through the magic whiles

Of mind alone this polar creature turns

To flying, feathered bird to take the verse

About him to a continent that burns

With phoenix passions.  There is nothing terse

About the source of beasts like these.  They swamp

The mind, though, large as Okefenokee.

These animals — and, yes, the swamp — will romp

Inside the poet’s serendipity.

  Imagination is the reason why

    A poem swells.  It finds a sovereign sky.