L.R. Harvey Poetry

Speed Dating in Heaven I hope in heaven there's speed dating. You laugh, for you can't help but see An over-smiling, slightly overweight Angel ringing a heavenly bell To send us off, a group of awkward floating spirits rating One another (internally) on who fits well In an angel body, who best plays The harp, and who has adapted best to being seen Again in diapers. But the dates I see are of a different kind. I see an endless room of broken people made whole, And rows and rows of tables where one by one I sit across from you and him and her, and we finally find The time we never found on earth To hear each other's stories, to talk with the goal Of truly listening instead of getting things done, To have a conversation without the dearth Of time we knew too well in earthly bodies. I'll spend an eternity with you, I'll talk forever with him, and on it goes; I hope that speed-dating in heaven is incredibly slow.

A Purpose of Poetry or On Reading a Wallace Stevens Poem This poem is nothing more to me Than inky dots on pages 125 and 6. I think I've missed the message, and all I can see Is how it's shaped like the comb my wife was using to fix Her hair at 7:16 this morning. Oh, the way a poem has Of reminding me to see the intimate moments in This intricately interconnected life we live!