perfectly adequate

a found poem

All sorts of things may be written
In perfectly adequate prose

Editorials, history, philosophy
Theology
Even lasting novels

But there is no such thing
As a perfectly adequate
Poem

Because a poem into which
Some strange
And surprising excellence
Has not entered

A poem that is not
In some explicable way
Beyond the will
Of the poet

Is not a poem

It comes so infrequently
It remains beyond our will


From the perfectly adequate prose piece In Praise of Rareness in the December 2006 issue of Poetry.