The fact that poetry is not of the slightest economic or political importance, that it has no attachment to any of the powers that control the modern world, may set it free to do the only thing that in this age it can do —to keep the neglected parts of the human experience alive until the weather changes; as in some unforeseeable way it may do.
Graham Hough

Poetry might keep ideas alive; it may also serve to keep a person’s legacy alive. What happens to a mortal’s memory when there is no poet to immortalize?

They Had No Poet by Don Marquis

“Vain was the chief’s, the sage’s pride!
They had no poet and they died.” — POPE.

BY Tigris, or the streams of Ind,
Ere Colchis rose, or Babylon,
Forgotten empires dreamed and sinned,
Setting tall towns against the dawn,

Which, when the proud Sun smote upon,
Flashed fire for fire and pride for pride;
Their names were . . . Ask oblivion! . .
“They had no poet, and they died.”

Queens, dusk of hair and tawny-skinned,
That loll where fellow leopards fawn . . .
Their hearts are dust before the wind,
Their loves, that shook the world, are wan!

Passion is mighty . . . but, anon,
Strong Death has Romance for his bride;
Their legends . . . Ask oblivion! . . .
“They had no poet, and they died.”

Heroes, the braggart trumps that dinned
Their futile triumphs, monarch, pawn,
Wild tribesmen, kingdoms disciplined,
Passed like a whirlwind and were gone;

They built with bronze and gold and brawn,
The inner Vision still denied;
Their conquests . . . Ask oblivion! . . .
“They had no poet, and they died.”

Dumb oracles, and priests withdrawn,
Was it but flesh they deified?
Their gods were . . . Ask oblivion! . . .
“They had no poet, and they died.”

Poet of the Day: Don Marquis, journalist cum poet who was most famous for his archy and mehitabel free verse poems ostensibly written by the cockroach, archy, who couldn’t hold down the caps key on the typewriter and therefore produced poetry like this without capital letters. Archy has a bit of trouble with punctuation, too.

Poetry activity for today: Write a poem without punctuation or capital letters. Put in the punctuation and capitals and see if they improve the poem or make it worse.