THANKSGIVING, 2017

If you're going to San Francisco
wear a flower

THE POEM THAT WISHES

FOR ITSELF AN ETERNITY

            for Karen on our 49th Anniversary

Karen, you've been with me

every day of the poem.

Before you, seeking the poem,

the poem is all I wanted,

I wanted to be a poet

but didn't know

what a poem was

or how to make one.

When you came

I knew it was you

knowing a poem

was in order, in fact,

an order, and a poem

was ordered. When

you came, the poem

came with you,

you were the poem

but I didn't know,

I knew but didn't know

knowing I didn't.

You embodied me

without my knowing.

I never made

what I found in you

finding out in time.

I never made you,

finding out in time

that you made me.

Love, Jim

23 November 2017