What Does It Take? Poem by Lindsey Priest

What does it take
To make
A poem
Really great?

Does it have to reach
The inner-most soul
And pull out from there
Something you had
Forgotten about?
A feeling
waiting
For some word-wise poet
To release it
From its prison.

Does it have to confuse
Those who would
Seek to understand?
A babble of words
Meaningless
To everyone but the writer
And those who
Pretend to
Know
What it is all
About!

Should it impress
With words that
Paint a picture or cover a canvas
Mind games
To feed the
Imagination.
A puzzle, a portrait
A landscape
Cleverly Coloured!

Is it purely
Playing with words?
Twisting a language
to your command?
Bouncing along
Swept away
On a tumble and jumble
Of crazy
Ideas

Or
Is it just
That
Someone got lucky?


What does it
Take
To make
A poem
REALLY
GREAT?