Brian Doyle: The Best Poem Ever

Photo by Molly

The Best Poem Ever

What if, says a small child to me this afternoon,

We made a poem without using any words at all?

Wouldn’t that be cool? You could use long twigs,

And feathers, or spider strands, and arrange them

So that people imagine what words could be there.

Wouldn’t that be cool? So there’s a different poem

For each reader. That would be the best poem ever.

The poem wouldn’t be on the page, right? It would

Be in the air, sort of. It would be between the twigs

And the person’s eyes, or behind the person’s eyes,

After the person saw whatever poem he or she saw.

Maybe there are a lot of poems that you can’t write

Down. Couldn’t that be? But they’re still there even

If no one can write them down, right? Poems in

Books are only a little bit of all the poems there are.

Those are only the poems someone found words for.

— Brian Doyle