New Poetry by Phillip Ellis

After Ezra Pound

After all, given the nature of poetry,
it is possible to say naught of
his verse, and yet emulate
aspects of his being, the
burning enthusiasm for others that
burns in the bones and that shakes them
till the poet is working for others
as much for himself or herself.
There is that giving
away of oneself, for others
and for these others as fellow
poets. There is that development
of taste, in winkling out the betters
of one's fellows, those who will profit,
by the looming taste of those to come after
us. There is the living commitment
for the poetry of the self, and
the poetry of the others
as well, the being
that is in each of us
as poets, the dedication
to the development of poetry
as a whole, in parallel to humanity,
and then there is that isness, the cantos.


- Phillip Ellis 2013