<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><header class="mb-1.5 md:mb-8"><header class="grid gap-2"><div class="flex items-center gap-2"><h1 class="type-gamma"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><font size="4">Ars Poetica #100: I Believe</font></span></h1></div><div class="grid gap-1 md:gap-2"><div class="type-kappa text-gray-600"><br></div></div></header></header><article class="mb-6 flex flex-col gap-12 md:mb-0"><div class="relative" data-v-1a293654=""><div class="annotations-active" data-v-1a293654=""><div class="rich-text copy-large" data-v-1a293654="" data-v-22a4749a=""><div class="poem-body overflow-x-auto" data-v-22a4749a=""><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">Poetry, I tell my students,<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">is idiosyncratic. Poetry<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">is where we are ourselves<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">(though Sterling Brown said<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">“Every ‘I’ is a dramatic ‘I’”),<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">digging in the clam flats<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">for the shell that snaps,<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">emptying the proverbial pocketbook.<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">Poetry is what you find<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">in the dirt in the corner,<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">overhear on the bus, God<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">in the details, the only way<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">to get from here to there.<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">Poetry (and now my voice is rising)<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">is not all love, love, love,<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">and I’m sorry the dog died.<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">is the human voice,<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;">and are we not of interest to each other?<br></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;"><br></div></div></div></div></div><div class="grid gap-4"><div class="text-2xs leading-snug text-gray-400 sm:text-sm"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Elizabeth Alexander</div></div></article></div></body></html>