POETRY

What is it that creates poetry? The writer's craft, of course, but it that all? Most poets would agree that there are moments when they become aware that a mysterious external force contributes something to the alchemy.
Ultimately, there's the reader, bringing to the published poem the "beholder's share" that's necessary to render the poem complete.

WHITE SOIL, BLACK SEED

White soil, black seed, I sow in lines,

an alphabet of words in rows:

stark characters that germinate

as, slowly, boldly, I compose

a field of verses, two or three,

approximating poetry.

Reader, a season later, you

will harvest crops that I have sown

then bind in sheaves and subtly add

an indefinable unknown.

Only when poetry is read

is it as nourishing as bread.