34

The place may be clean and tidy

and have for furniture only a mat

if there are windows if they are large

so much the better if there's a flower

or a picture that's special

if there is a teacher

there may be respite from sorrow

if there is rain remember the occasion

of the double rainbow if there is a marriage

there may be need of a goat

about beauty the old ones could not have foreseen

if there is love

think on these things honey nuts and olives

if they are taken from nature

there will be nothing to behold

nor an eye

a poet will have to sing

of the ineffable as true

to begin with

A PALACE OF PEARLS

Copyright © 2005 Jane Miller All rights reserved
from A Palace of Pearls
Copper Canyon Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission