Unknown Valentine

In the dark years when the great
Gothic churches arose like clipper ships
On the horizons of Europe
We still don't know how they did it
While in China their greatest woman poet
And her lover Ming were married
Themselves a couple on a porcelain cup
Because of the arbitrariness of time
Setting out on garlanded river boats
To gather their vast collections
Of artifacts and laborious rubbings
Of inscriptions on 4th c. BCE urns
As we say now until they filled
Ten huge storage rooms in Ch'ing Chou
Later sadly lost in fires but somehow
It makes me happy imagining them
The sheer industry and love
Like the burning of those cathedrals
Which were steadily rebuilt
Or the indigo staining the rose windows
We still don't know how they did it