Dumb as old medallions to the thumb (Friday's Sunday's Poem and Hot Actress, 50)

This morning, Sweetie and I had one of our philosophical discussions, the highly intellectual kind that have marked our marriage's 10+ years so far. It went like this:

Me: I've got a little more to do. I have to post the Poem.

Sweetie: The what?

Me: The poem.

Sweetie: Po-em.

Me: Poem (pronouncing it pome).

Sweetie: Po-em! Arrggh. (She really did say Arrgh!)

I then tried to find a poem that would settle that debate, in my favor, but I couldn't. So I settled for Ars Poetica, which is at least about poetry.

And, Sweetie suggested Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the Hot Actress today, which also seems fitting, as she recently had her name misspelled on her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, which is kind of similar to the debate Sweetie and I had because... well...

Okay, I don't know how it fits in. Here's the poem:


Ars Poetica
by Archibald MacLeish

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

*

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind—

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.

*

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean
But be.
_________________________________________________________________

Note: I also think a poem should rhyme, but that's just me.