I am looking for a poem
I wrote for a girl
looking for a poem.
That she was lovely as a poem
I did not say.
I gave her pencil and paper
and said,
poems wear words,
like you wear clothes.
Clothes present the face,
the form and the intangibles
of the heart and soul.
So if you want to find a poem
do not worry about its clothes.
Look at the paper
and see what you feel.
If it’s love
you will have a curl,
a pair of eyes,
the shape of a mouth
with a word on its lips.
Watch the lips move
and write that word.
Watch the eyes see
and tell us what they see.
Which way does the curl fall?
What color colors it?
And a poem begins in you.
A name finds a name,
and its sound will put a
word on the paper.
The sounds of words
will chase each other
like children chasing.
Let them play,
until the page is full.
And you have a poem
for which you are responsible.
Something sacred and alive
with you inside it.
And it will stay where you are
as long as you are,
and ring from your heart
when you think in poetry.