A poem of this kind needs to be read aloud to make sense. The reader will have to break the silence of the cold page to free participation, an end to silence and solitude. What is at stake is the need. Sooner or later, one finds what one needs and what the work of composition demands. For the materials of a new art, the problem is not whether something is art or not, but whether one is alert to all the possibilities of the universe. What must be understood — what distinguishes the writing of a poem from an engineering project — is the fact that one discovers the nature of the work (and therefore the materials and methods of work required) as one proceeds. In this way the poem is a true creation or invention and not simply the reproduction of something that is known in advance. What keeps us lurking is the degree and depth of our own need.
