Not Without Honor Except in Its Own Country

If a dancer turns movement

Into poetry, pretty

Clearly that’s a compressed way

Of saying what the dancer

Does with movement is like what

Poetry does with language.

If a face is poetic,

If a note is poetic,

If a scene is poetic,

The same. That face, note, or scene

Is to faces, notes, or scenes

As poetry to language,

And what is that? Elegant

Is implied. More expressive

Is implied. Exceptional,

Exquisite, rare are implied.

A kind of intensity,

A density approaching

Ideal motion, perfection

In symmetry, tune, landscape,

Whatever it is that is

Poetic for the reason

That it compares to its kind

As poetry to language.

It’s not hard to understand,

When reading about a dance,

A portrait, a melody,

What terming it poetry

Intends. What poets intend

Is tougher to comprehend.