not sticky

He’s published a dozen books and not one poem sticks in the public consciousness.

passage lodged

We call them ‘passages’ in literature yet some lodge themselves inside of us for the remainder of our lives.

be quoted or die

Literary fame is measured by being oft-quoted.

poem that lives

A poem lives by its memorable lines and the reader’s feel for the worth of its whole.

pack only the essentials

A haiku travels light, through centuries.

we have a runner

In the end, all you want is your poem to be running through their heads.

sound of the pages

It was the sound of turning the pages that he remembered most about the book.

a poem that travels light

I dream of a poem so brief and memorable, so engaging and spirited, that it will forever elude print—it will travel light from mouth to mind, mind to mouth, without ever being pinned to a page as text.