PAUL KLEE'S BIRTHDAY
Dec. 18

That sauntering sense of color
on the canvas
appraised by my teacher
at the Metropolitan museum
loving Klee's art as a child
surfacing my eyes on clear lines
in silent respect
later injecting my own jazz words
of painted poetry
from the light on walls
though his Swiss dreams
in Prussian blue
giving us the fragrance
of his touch
in shaping what is new
like a bird's dance
on his painting "Before the Snow"
drawing a body of memory
through a Muse's chance
to understand our identities
on a white meadow by the Bay
from imaginative shadows
in a language native to pine
on a road map through the woods
with a Muse all yours and mine
as an earth angel saint
plays the lute
from a speechless scherzo
by a narrow flowered river bed
in a half-painted fresco
on a selected metamorphosis
of wet paint
yet only Apollo would know
to salute and visit you
on your pillow
at your birthday.