Among all of the so-called arts
writing does stand alone.
How often have you seen art
hanging on gallery walls
and look at the card next to it
to see what the work is called
and find that all too uniquitous title,
UNTITLED, as if the artist’s power
of language escaped into his brushes.
And let’s not talk about composer’s
whose work is later numbered
and its key signature attached
to accompany it through history.
But writers in general, and poets
in specific, can’t copout like that
(okay Miss Dickinson, you are the exception)
for even when, rarely, the title
eludes them, the first line of the poem
will more than serve that purpose.