A Poem Whose Meaning The Poet Does Not Know

A POEM WHOSE MEANING THE POET DOES NOT KNOW A poem whose meaning the poet does not know Is a question only its readers can answer. But if in the silence of endless absence There are no readers A poem whose meaning the poet does not know Becomes a poem which does not exist. And a poem which does not exist Is not the poem the poet dreamed When he heard in the night or the early morning That rush of music that sequence of sounds Which seemed to say more than he would ever understand As he wrote it down in haste For fear it somehow would be lost.