Saturday's Poem

I have discovered another poet, Dan Gioia, whose poetry I enjoy and wanted to share an excerpt of one poem with the title, "Words." It is found in his book, Interrogations at Noon (3).

Words

The world does not need words. It articulates itself
in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path
are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted...

Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot
name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica...

The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds,
painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving
each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it.
The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always--
greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.