The point of Starbucks is that it allows an enormous slice of America, a slice certainly far bigger than the 20% or so who can actually claim to be Brahmins, to feel like they are part of the ruling class for 15 minutes or so. Perhaps it is different in Omaha, but what you see when you go into a Starbucks in SF is Vaisyas, Vaisyas, Vaisyas. Good ordinary people, who get to pay $3 for a pretty good coffee, and feel like they went to Harvard and work for a nonprofit.

And this, in a very similar sense, is the point of "almost pure empty poetry." The goal of the poem is to make the reader feel like a person who reads poetry. The "ah" is an essentially narcissistic vibration. It says, "ah, yes, me. I have just listened to and enjoyed a poem. I am the sort of person who listens to and enjoys poetry."