Reunion Overlook

A splendid place visited once
Probably ought to be pictured,
Photographed, recorded somehow,

But a splendid place visited
Regularly ought to be left
To memory and its odd tricks,

Memory, cast-iron skillet
Needing seasoning, memory
That coral reef of sun-soaked brains,

Easily bleached, needing to keep
Growing at just the right level
To distort, not to lose the light.

A splendid place in memory
Won’t help your hours of weariness
Much with tranquil restoration,

But it’s better to have than not,
And, even anchored by a few
Photographs from early visits,

Is mostly just the wild garden
Of itself sprawling from those rocks,
Good in itself, alive itself

In a way we words are just not
And never can be. A splendid
Place is best the way seasons are

At their best, not recollected
In an unfortunate time but
Waiting to be revisited,

When you manage to crawl your way,
Haul your way, claw all the way back
To another fine fall morning,

Small polyps of your memory
Opening in that splendid place
Where memories grow reunions.