Poets make things. True enough. But they don't make poetry, or they don't make it from nothing. Poetry is present to begin with; it is there, and poets answer it if they can. The poem is the trace of the poet's joining in knowing. its one and only use in this world is to honor the gods, the dead, and other nonhumans and humans - to honor being, in other words - and maybe to honor nonbeing as well - by allowing others to join in that knowing.
