“…poetry is not thought, is not emotion, is not beauty, is not morality, is not religion, but something else….’Seek ye first the kingdom of poetry, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ ” p. 27 ~ R. H. Blyth, History of Haiku, volume I, p. 27
Pure poetry is not just logic, thought,
Or mind in stylized lines. Chaste poetry
Is not about the realm of should and ought.
It isn’t about mere morality,
Religion, or robed justice, or a robe
Upon a priest or pope. Emotion on
A page is not pure poetry. The globe
Of sheerest poetry is like a dawn
So clean that it cannot be smelled or seen,
A daybreak like first Eden’s primal sky
Beyond besmirching, a transparent queen,
Or like an all-embracing limpid eye.
The tawdriness of politics besmears
Pure poetry and must be held at poetry’s frontiers.
~ Phillip Whidden