A Regency of Need

A Regency of Need^[1]

 

The essence of a poet

Is a regency of need

That cannot leave

Alone a thought

 

That other thought can breed

 

A mind that is mercurial

And thinks but for its sake;

 

The essence of a poet

Is the thought that thought

 

Awakes

 

The essence of a poet is

The will to see or say

 

A theme that is

Transcendent

 

And a title for the day

 

A line that is no more than heart,

What form the musing takes;

 

The essence of a poet

Is the poem the poet makes.

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[1] Paris was disappointed to learn that “A Regency of Need” was not among his poems to do well on internet websites. It gained only a tiny fraction of the interest generated by lesser poems, such as “Prayer for the Daffodils” and “The Wonders of Medicare.”