What is it that a poet knows?

What is it that a poet knows

Louis Dudek


What is it that a poet knows
----------------that tells him ­­ 'this is real'?
Some revelation, a gift of sight,
granted through an effort of the mind
------------------------ of infinite delight.


All the time I have been writing on the very edge of knowledge,


heard the real world whispering
-------------------with an indistinct and liquid rustling­­
as if to free, at last, an inextricable meaning!
Sought for words simpler, smoother, more clean than any,
---------------------- only to clear the air
of an unnecessary obstruction…


Not because I wanted to meddle with the unknown
------- (I do not believe for a moment that it can be done),
but because the visible world seemed to be waiting,
----------------- as it always is,
somehow, to be revealed


----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: From Atlantis. In The Poetry of Louis Dudek. Golden Dog Press.