Page:Our Poets of Today (1918).djvu/21

Rh wasps? May we not, like the bees, decree and build our "stately pleasure-domes"?

Here, as editor-host, Mr. Cook may assemble us in type: but to attain what common end, to build what national or international structure of imagination, do these collected excerpts of our work contribute? How are they related to one another, and to our time?

Once a year, as President of the Poetry Society, Mr. Wheeler may assemble us in person for the pleasure and inspiration of brief reunions; but what definite, creative processes of art tend to unite and focus the work of our Poetry Society members in a common up-building of imaginative life for America?

Let us answer frankly, and seek some solution to our answer.

Unity, harmony, focus: these great essentials of art are lacking to our national poetry. They are, however, no longer wholly lacking to our national life. The war has immensely stimulated their growth, and in that growth of our community life lies, I think, the greatest hope for our poetry.

Focus, above all: for focus leads directly to unity and harmony.

Through what definite, creative processes, then, may the work of our poets be focused?

I venture an answer—based on the growing personal experience of a decade: through the definite, creative processes of community poetry—the focalizing craftsmanship of community drama, a craft potentially vast in its variety.