Lizards were nothing more than reptiles, and coral was something growing under the sea...

until he discovered poetry.

He came to poetry late in life.

He did not know before those words

he’d learned to think were common

could breathe and sing and dance

and laugh out loud across the page.

Those words yesterday he put upon the page

all in a scheme and order rare

are of some time and place apart from him

and speak of things he’d only read about.

They are not his alone today. 

I wrote the words remembering 

what a miracle poetry is

and what intense pleasure it is

to be a teacher watching

as someone discovers the magic

in common words.

In the middle of this week I watched Patrick and Jeremy...

and watching them, father and son, I was reminded

as they rode off together on their scooters that parenting

is a very special kind of poetry that unlocks the world.