JEANNE DUVAL

There are those he said

who would not be at all surprised

that it seemed to you

familiar as you have named it

though remember that

we who have been here all the time

seeing it as our

own are less likely to have it

emerge before us

for the first time ancient as light

and know it at once

out of all we have forgotten

now that you tell us

how it appeared to you he said

we catch sight of it

ourselves as you may have seen it

in this deep forest

the valley curtained with shadows

of oaks the mossed roofs

where the tracks come out of the woods

the hamlet of Jeanne

Duval and rising from the lane

this one plain building

its pink stone glowing like a lamp

arches at the base

of the walls none like the others

across wide porches

opened at different times into

the main manor of

Jeanne Duval perhaps it was this

which you thought you were

seeing years ago beside those

oaks and that fountain

that empty village those arches

that tower and one

old man trying to remember

it would not be true

to say we knew you were coming

any more than we

can think that the ancestors knew

that we would be here

but just as your sight of the house

the sound of its name

from the line of mothers the door

where you came into

the swirl of dogs children faces

of different ages

to stand in a large family

set your blood beating

suddenly faster as though you

had been there before

so each of us seems to know you

and will tell you that

after you have gone in to meet

Jeanne Duval herself

she will be happy to see you

how long it has been

some of it will come back something

that you recognize

you will know her when you see her