Heims is a writer and teacher working in Paris. In this essay, he argues that the poet's perception and the world she perceives determine each other and that the poem derives its energy from this interaction.

Whatever else it may be, a poem is an act of transformation. By means of a poem, a poet's consciousness and experience become part of the world, and parts of the world become aspects of the poet's consciousness and experience. This dizzying interchange, this delicate interaction, creates the potential stored in the poem, which is released as the energy of poetry when the poem is read or recited.

Words turn into things, and things turn into words. The tangible objects of the world represent the intangible sensations—thoughts and feelings—of the poet, and the intangible sensations of the poet—those thoughts and feelings—render the tangible objects of the world...