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# [ a painter sees you in the canvas  ]
- URL: https://www.hawkword.com/poetry/a-painter-sees-you-in-the-canvas/
- Published: 2025-11-29T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-29T12:00:00.000Z
- Description: a painter sees you in the canvas a sculptor frees you from the stone a writer moves you out of Kansas into a world you've never known a playwright uses parts of speech to make you laugh, to make you cry a poet sees wa...
- Author: A. Gee
- Tags: Poetry, Allpoetry Import, #Import 2026-04-25 19:56

a painter sees you in the canvas  
a sculptor frees you from the stone  
a writer moves you out of Kansas  
into a world you've never known  
a playwright uses parts of speech  
to make you laugh, to make you cry  
a poet sees waves on the beach  
and writes a poem. Calls it Why?

Forgive the little ditty -- the "Why?" poem is most assuredly there, you won't have to scroll far

It would have been easier to answer your question if you were juxtaposing a Rothko to a Da Vinci (or Van Gogh).

these criteria apply to poetry (actually to most writing, but especially poetry)

1) Is it distinguishable? Does it have a recognizable style? Could it have been written by anyone? Two, three lines in, do you know who wrote it, the only person who could have written it? (putting AI imitations aside)

2) Does it wish to be remembered? Are you moved to quote it, in the way that you'd quote not only Frost or Shakespeare, but a Tarentino movie? Does it play on your tongue, wanting to be repeated again and again?

I would venture to say most free verse written today, whether on this site or even in lauded publications, and by various poet laureates, fails one or both of these tests, and most formal modern poetry (to the extent it is even visible) is rightly dismissed as pedestrian, which, if you examine it, also fails both of the above tests.

AI is sycophantic, but it's able to judge style and mechanics, and if pressed, can offer real criticism. That can help in the absence of a human reader. Human reaction is priceless, of course, but is rarely genuine on this site.