Is poetry compatible with autobiography? Does the notion of pure poetry still make sense? And what is poetry? These are some of the questions revisited in this article, which is meant to introduce the reader to the work of midwestern American poet Chuck Miller (b. 1939). Paul Valéry’s theoretical writings on poetry are used as a benchmark to locate Miller’s verse on the spectrum of the genre and tease out Miller’s own implicit ars poetica through poems, many of which happen to bear some relation, central or anecdotal, to the Czech Republic. Unlikely as the assemblage of its various components may appear at first glance (a Mallarmé-inspired defender of pure poetry vs. a proto-exponent of “New Sincerity”), the article gradually makes plain its raison d’être as the basis for comparison between the two poets is shown to be wider than expected, including, for example, a shared sense of the importance of the body in poetry.