Pretty-Minded Hermits (Is the curiosity shop open today?)

I know most grown-up women would agree that a kindly and creative spirit in a man is by far his most attractive feature. Everything material that he possesses is left in the dust...


A SOUND VISION
written in August 1996

It would be a novel adventure for me
to collect your thoughts
along with all the notes you've sung --
You gave away another clue
when you sang me a few once --

You see, we all used to think you locked your worries
behind those vulnerable averted eyes...
That may be, but is it more that you
turn them away so as not to distract from
the uncommon listening way you mostly learn?
Lucky you.

I wonder, too, about the place where it first took new form...
You know, the one whose shoulder is just the right height --
who stockpiles all his pretty newborn music
like ammunition against collective future sadness
until some given hour will finally come.

Just one other thing for now...
Have you found your childhood paintings?


ISLAND CASTAWAYS
written in August 1996

One night I looked inside Greg's eyes --
only for a second, since that's all the time one has...
I saw there a doorway into some kind of wonderland that
only he himself had ever seen
I wanted to leap through it right then
in case it might slam shut
Now, like the cave dweller in Plato's allegory
I can never be happy remaining in the shadows.