the shape of the human heart

the shape of the human heart is as the eucalyptus by Guadalupe Creek is as the salt wort that thrives in the Palo Alto baylands—where a breeze brings in sea gulls and egrets and gentle waves wash over images of Indians in tule canoes the heart is shaped as the hills above Sand Hill Road to the west of the highway where oak trees lean their aortae on the slope the heart sounds as a crawfish brook in Big Basin up a trail among ferns and redwood trees the human heart has a shape it has a color a smell a taste a sound a feel and you can know it when you go there 14 February 1985 Ring Poem for Gretchen on Valentine’s Day