with Grace (in memory)

MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION

                  i.m. Grace Tagliabue (1922-2018)

In that heavenly kingdom of Como, or Maine,

his ready bird-feather

will already be there

with you, Grace – to bring peace, to make plain

the origin of the Cosmos in love & joy –

his valiant light-heart

casting out fear with an art

like child’s play.  & you (his chief toy,

rest, dream) would be there, too –

answering love with love

from the deep, from above,

tracing that birdsong in robin’s egg blue

& loops of moss-green watercolor.

Since poetry – imagination –

is manuscript illumination,

you chose to let John’s words flower

like parchment flesh in a bath of rebirth –

& as time slowly waltzes us

toward our last contra dances

you help wash our feet on Earth

& ready us for that elfin circle-dance

in the kingdom of children &

animals & grains of sand

all sparkling in the galaxies... entrancing

Entrance to Eternity (your linen

wheel of emerald palm-

prints... infant calm

babble of Phoebe)... heaven’s amen, amen.

    with grace, from Grace, by grace 

                                3.29.18