What a Muse Meant

To say was not
What a poem said—
What a poem said
Was what a muse

Would have said if
A muse lived, if
A soul lived, if
A name could live

Once named, just since
It had been named,
Like God, say, or
Truth, Dao, or pi.

A muse would laugh
If she could, if
She wrote a poem
She made her home.