All coincidental pieces fall and fit to a pattern

at a lecture by Robin Grove, who on that occasion, recited Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, I couldn’t catch any of the words

being a foreign student of English intimidated by any poetry, I just sat there listening, surrendering to the sounds

It was years later when I had to teach poetry that I started to notice the patterns –

All coincidental pieces fall and fit to a pattern

It is like tracing a relic or remembering a face. I see you. I know you from somewhere