IMPROVISATION# 39
( PAUL VALERY'S MEMORY
1871-1945)

You taught us
that no poem is ever lost
or even abandoned
that words will connect
and continue
as the snow in the sky
watches the birds on my roof
for though you are absent
we still are catching
your gentleness of time
we have sought
your memory in words
which today
crossed my mind
for Paul Valery
you are more than a shadow
into a transition of rhyme.