crane poem for my love

two cranes fly west
into a snowy march morning
these two cranes
mates for life will both
outlive us
and one day my love
because their wings are powerful
because they are the highest
flying of all the symbols of love
one day
my love
these two birds will
deliver us to the
place the chinese call
western paradise
they are called xian he
heavenly bird
bird of happiness

because it is custom
i will draw them with
tortoises
bamboo
stone

symbols of long life
for us my love
i wish us something
permanent as cranes

and because cranes
know all the gods
if one of us should
lets not say it
but if
one of us should
then the gods will send
either you or i
to this mortal place
and one of us will
trumpet into the morning air
one of us will dance
among the wasted grain
in the farmer’s field

for you my love
if i’m first
i will throw feathers into the sky
i will pray my crane prayer
in the early dawn
for you
if i’m first
i will stand with my head
buried in my wing
one leg raised up to my body
i will
for you
stand that way
so you can see that
only the tips of my wings
are black
there is only that much
sadness

if i should

lets not say it

only the tips of
my wings will be sad
the rest of me will
burn white and red
white and red my love
i’ll wait in my red and
white vigilance
i will wait

in myth the crane
lives for a thousand years
and there are stories
of how emperors
loved them
there are stories of prayers
tied to the leg of a crane
so the crane might
deliver the fallen

how will you
if
lets not

but if i’m left
i will think of
cranes    for you my love
my prayer
when you read it
will be in symbol

for centuries
poets have loved cranes
i will write
how god visits earth
flown down to us
on the backs of cranes
for my love i will write
a crane poem
that lives in two worlds
one thin line
for every crane
flying into an autumn sky
and yet another line
for each crane
returning to a river’s source
and another line
for the crane song that tells
peasants to sow their fields

when i finish this poem
the lines will fall from
the sky of continents
and while the crane sleeps
i will tie a prayer poem
to its leg
for god
to carry back
to you
my love
my xian he
heavenly bird
a poem
a prayer
like this one
for you