does the poem have guts ?

“Does the poem have guts?  Is imagery used as a vital way to intensify the poem, and not as mere decoration?  Does the poem get to its content with heart and an acute eye?  Does the poem work, in its breathing, its life-span?  Does the poem get to life-experience, in all its ambiguity or lyricism or terror or love?”

— Anne Sexton, from a poetry workshop session, quoted by one of her students, featured in “The Death Notebooks”

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