How many pages should a book of poetry be ?

When I was younger I was always captivated by books of poetry that had, say, a hundred pages. Go to your local library and pick up a slender volume by e.e. cummings or one of the Beat poets.

A simple hundred pages could hold a key to a great mystery, one you may never get tired of investigating. A poem is not a work of fiction, it doesn't have to lie; a poem is a work of art, it should not have to surround itself with words and pages in order to shine. The page count is irrelevant.

Alan Ginsberg has a poem where he says that he "attempted to concentrate the total sun's rays in each poem as through a glass, but such magnification did not set the page afire."

You may feel differently !