Money

I thought the little quote by Wallace Stevens above the poem was interesting. It simply says "money is a kind of poetry". I began to wonder what he was trying to say.
According to Mark Flanagan at About.com the definition of poetry is "an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define."
According to Wikipedia poetry "often uses particular forms and conventions to suggest alternative meanings in the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses"
Doesn't money evoke emotional or sensual responses? Doesn't it create an imaginative awareness of experience? I suppose it's not too far of a stretch to call money poetry. The poem "Money" by Dana Gioia gives us an interesting take on the affect and emotions money may evoke. In the first few line Gioia lists a bunch of slang for money. Each term originated during a time of economic struggle. It's funny how much we think about money when we don't have any. We think about it enough to give it pet names. Once we have it, it "burns holes in our pockets." I find that I often spend money quickly. Especially for example, when pay day comes and for the past two weeks (the time between paychecks) I have been dead broke. I can always think of things I need to spend money on or want to spend money on, especially when I don't have any.
The last part of the poem Gioia says "Money. You don't know where it's been, but you put it where your mouth is. And it talks."
Money really does talk. Especially the things bought with it. How often do you see a fancy house or car and automatically assume the owner must make a lot of money. How often do you assume that person does something important and is a person of status? On the opposite end of the spectrum. How often do you see someone in a dumpy apartment or a hoopty and assume they are low-income, of low status, and probably don't do anything very special or important for a living? We automatically correlate the possessions a person has with the amount of money and the status of that individual. Their money or lack of money really does a lot of the talking.