THE GAME OF VERSE

    Think first of poetry like this as game.
    It’s not that you have something set to say;
    When you begin, you have no certain aim:
    It’s simply that you’ve set some sounds in play
    While you explore emerging lines of thought,
    Which grow in clarity as you proceed,
    Revealing what you did not know you sought,
    Turning mere supposition into deed.
    How this should be remains a mystery,
    That meaning should emerge from a mere frame,
    An empty crossword box implicitly
    Designed to realize a covert aim,
         Yet in this case with no prescribed intent,
         Just meaning you, as you proceed, invent.

*