How Is that a Poem?

The William Carlos Williams poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” has a kind of staying power, even if only because people so often collar me and ask (probably grabbing other poets and teachers, too) some version of, “How is that a poem”?  The text is as follows, for those who need a nudge:
***
The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens
***
No period.  So where’s the art in it all?  What depends upon them?  What’s he doing, and conspicuously not doing?  If you separate it as he does, what’s a “barrow”? Why poultry?
Wade in and provide some suggestions.


recent-meR. T. Smith has edited Shenandoah since 1995 and serves as Writer-in-Residence at Washington & Lee. His forthcoming books are Doves in Flight: 13 Fictions and Summoning Shades: New Poems, both due in 2017.