October 29, 2021

To A Poet Some Time From Now

If my words should last

so long to greet your eye

do not smile, I beg you

do not smile

for if you see, what you see

was felt by me, was writ by me

I lived, I died, by these words

you see, they are me

are mine, are all of me

you may ever see

oh, I beg you

do not smile

condescendingly at my attempt

to write of that more far beyond

than I beyond this page

I tried, I tell you true, I did

try reveal what others hid

my grasp at that with fragile fingers

though did not hold all, did feel much

the brush of grace against these tips

that joyful danced

these words around this plane

that you, distant stranger

my brother, sister, friend

might be blessed to apprehend

the brush of grace upon your soul

oh, I beg you

do not smile

lest you smile

for joy

that I have found what I have found

and finding have been found

I have not died, I live!

oh, if you smile

I pray you smile

would shed a smile for this

that I have found, have been found

rejoice with me my finding

and, if finding too

I shall smile with you

A riff on James Elroy Flecker's "To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence" written in the hope of  meeting.