Here is my “perfect poem”. It was really fun to write, actually. Obviously it’s rough. Hot off the press:D Perfect!

The perfect poem

is as heavy with history as the look you gave me last night

I can barely breathe with the weight

the stone-gray weight

 

the rigidity

 

the perfect poem was written years ago

in the mouths of the critics

in the syllabi of first year English teachers

who told us what Thomas was saying

who tried to clothe Whitman’s bodies in layers of meaning

tamed Howl, distilled it into a handout

on lavender paper

asked their students to give them an introduction

body paragraphs

and a conclusion

I’ll bet Ginsberg would have loved to see our conclusions.

 

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