Merits
What makes a poem good?
I’ve asked around—
a solid, old professor
a languid drape across his lectern,
shifted a bit, sloe-eyed,
sputtered aphorisms and conceits.
Ha! It seems to me he does not know
What makes a poem good?
Rhyme or reason inherent?
Good behavior?
And who’s to say
that one good poem is more
virtuous than another?
Catch a poem at its worst’s
like nabbing a good sinner
doing what he does best—
plain sinning
Can poems sin
or do they simply err
– as weaklings all-
and if they sin
who then will shrive them
in their guilt?
Good poems seem to last
They’re passed along
and read; they’re praised and,
into them are pressed
sweet blossoms
staining pages as if
a shadow settled on their lines.
Ah then, good poems are rewarded
and heap up merits word by word
and leave emotions to be felt by those
whose curiosity leaps about
amid the nodding blossoms
by Margery Cunningham
December, 2009