What Makes Poetry Beautiful? Poem by Denis Martindale

What makes a poem flow like wine or dance upon a page,
Or celebrate all truths divine, transform both love and rage?
What makes a verse converse and share or touch as if a breeze,
Or whisper like a secret prayer one says upon one's knees?
What makes that final line express a magic all its own,
Or by its force spread happiness or mercy to atone?
What makes the readers pause and smile or read the poem twice,
Or memorise a little while such gently-shared advice?
What makes the poet's gifts transcend commonly-spoken thought,
Or beckon us to comprehend the double meanings taught?
What makes the beauty all it was and ever more shall be,
In truth, I tell you, it's because God's blessed great poetry!


Denis Martindale March 2017.