Song to hum while opening mail from a friend
O the very fact that there are friends who write with their handsEven if just the forefingers hammering away on keyboards, andAlso then print out the resulting muddle and scrawl and scribbleAnd pop it in the post-box! The lickable areas on the envelopes!The Return Address Just in Case! The choice of stamps, and weAll blessedly have friends who carefully choose their stamps, andStand in line at the post office asking for the ones with Authors,Or members of the Simpson family, or stamps with Polar Bears!And the fact that there are fifty addresses in your memory, someOf them no longer inhabited by the people you loved to write to;Much like your mind retains past phone numbers and exchanges,Like Mayfair and Ludlow and Allegheny and Cypress and Tulip!And the fact that you can draw all morning on an envelope or byGod paint it flagrantly with horses and angels, and your postmanWill deliver it anyway! Probably grinning at the nut who mailedIt to you! And you can put a few grains of sand inside your note,From the beach we went to as children, or a feather from a hawkWho glared in the window like an insurance adjuster with talons,Or a painting by a child, or a photograph of four of the names ofThat which we call God for lack of a better label. Even the foldsOf the paper, and the paperness of the paper, and the fact that it'sAll about miracles and affection, which is to say, of course, love!Sure it is. All the good parts are about love, in all its many masks.
The blue room
I was in a library in Utah the other night whenA small boy asked me to help him find a book.The boy was perhaps four years old and intent.I said what book would you like, little brother?And he said 'One with blue in it. A lot of blues.One I can smell the blue. I love that blue. MomSays people can like other colors too, but why?Is there a shelf for blue books? If lots of peopleRead the book does the blue wear out? Is thereA blue bank where you have to get a new blue?'You know, many times I have sighed that I amNot able to help people who ask me for advice,Or directions, or counsel about this or that. ButI don't think I ever wanted so much to say,