My Love of Ever Great Life

I have touched the great and the great have touched me
That destroys libraries and restores the looks
I get back from my mirror, a face to shave, to shape
It has none, there is only the great. I mean
Ginsberg, Rosalie, Utah, Creeley, Ann, Ken
Philip, Duncan, Marianne Moore, Marilyn, more—
Two hummingbirds after scarlet lightning two
Cauliflowers, perfect, photographed by my son—
The clouds that don’t hinge on development
But unfold themselves against the ever blue sky
I search up for the norm that says it’s okay
to be the way I create though it takes its toll
Dorn, Ned, Jack, Judy, and I wish Gertrude, and almost
Charles—my love of ever great life—Lenore, more.


Sonnet 120 from All of Love/1987