“Prayer is more than an order of words” T.S. Eliot

And so with poetry.

Eliot again (in “Little Gidding”):

“[…] You are here to kneel

Where prayer has been valid.  And prayer is more

Than an order of words, the conscious occupation

Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.”

If poets looked at their craft the same way Eliot looked at prayer, we would read a lot less dross.