Reading a Poem

Sight reading a poem is not enough.
You must read aloud
to experience the life of a poem.
You must hear the sound
and feel how the words fit together;

how lips and tongue
with teeth unlock the patterns,

evoke the sound

of words melded physically together
to create both rhythm and rhyming,

thus, enforce the feel 
that renders a poem remembered
--as a violinist remembers fingering

an oft-played tune
by the practiced placement of fingers.

It is body knowledge
--like the movement of feet in a dance--
that enhances feelings and stores the score

where the memory of meaning is kept
at the body’s core.