Poet's Cause

Excerpts from essay How Does a Poem Mean? by John Ciardi

In This Romance of Imminence

The art of hold-let-go

Becomes a dance twixt heart and hands

That leaves us winded, oh

The ballroom floor becomes a door

The door, a skiff of mist

Where legs and arms askew with charms

Are vexed with treks half-kissed

The ashes of fond yester-love

Lay mute in Bygone’s Urn

Time’s tinseled jar of Where We Are

Pours out More No Return

And we are glad for what we had

Yet hunger for the sky

Where Imminence, Deliverance

And Remembrance ally

Thus, Poet strives to preserve lives

And loves and days and years

With brush of pen to touch again

The When that disappears

© Janet Martin