Terzanelle Terzanelle

Such beauty in this poetry--almost too much to hold.
Vocabulary speaks. I understand that form
should be constructed by the rules, but it is cold

and analytical finding the words, and being warm
is poetry--the presence, not the absence, of the thing.
Vocabulary speaks. I understand that form

is just a frame to drape the phrases, make them ring,
so somewhere someone reads and touches you.
Is poetry the presence, not the absence of the thing?

Does it fill empty spaces gaping in the reader, too?
If beauty is but artifice, I might make it to feel,
so somewhere someone reads and touches you.

Does calculated cause make the effect any less real?
There are so many things I've never felt. I do not know
if beauty is but artifice, I might make it to feel

an echo of a truth I've never held in my embrace.
You read--I am, although you've never seen my face.
Such beauty in this poetry--almost too much to hold
should be constructed by the rules, but it is cold.