What Makes Poetry Beautiful?

What makes a poem flow like wine or dance upon a page, Or celebrate all truths divine, transform both love and rage? What makes a verse converse and share or touch as if a breeze, Or whisper like a secret prayer one says upon one's knees? What makes that final line express a magic all its own, Or by its force spread happiness or mercy to atone? What makes the readers pause and smile or read the poem twice, Or memorise a little while such gently-shared advice? What makes the poet's gifts transcend commonly-spoken thought, Or beckon us to comprehend the double meanings taught? What makes the beauty all it was and ever more shall be, In truth, I tell you, it's because God's blessed great poetry! Denis Martindale March 2017.