Grace Cavalieri

Please Accept My Donation

for Ken

I want to thank you for dazzling heaving deserts praising love,
for extravagant birds and clowns.
Please forgive the calamitous leaping over sand, the shouts of fire,
the startling rings. I didn’t know.
Afternoons hasten. That’s why I want to say, most of all,
I memorized your paper gardens, drifting stones, the willow trees.
I’ll always remember the sun we survived, the vulnerable surfs, waking.
I deeply appreciate the way we addressed each other faithfully,
powdered gold faces, crossing like this, tomorrow in mirrors.
It was all a lovely motion of fleece, feathers on the sea.

Copyright 2023 by Grace Cavalieri .

Grace Cavalieri is Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate. She founded and still produces “The Poet and The Poem” now from the Library of Congress, now celebrating 46 years on-air.

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review