Amen, Gertrude, Amen.

Poetry is

concerned with using

with abusing,

with losing

with wanting,

with denying

with avoiding

with adoring

with replacing the noun.



It is doing that

always doing that,

doing that

and doing nothing but that.



Poetry is doing nothing

but using

losing

refusing

and pleasing

and betraying

and caressing nouns.



That is

what poetry does,

that is what poetry has to do

no matter what kind of poetry it is.



And there are a great many kinds of poetry.

---Gertrude Stein