What is the meaning of poetry?

For Wednesday's discussion and writing exercise, read the poem below. Pay attention to the poet's use of language: palpable, mute, dumb, silent. Think about the concrete images/comparisons: globed fruit, medallions, moss, flight of birds, moon. Is this poem important to a new writer? If so, why? If not, why? What does Ars Poetica mean? How can a poem be "dumb"?

Ars Poetica
by Archibald MacLeish

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

*

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind—

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.

*

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean
But be.