Love, rain & the poem

(for Mr. Stevens)

A mother who'd seen him walk in the rain said to her child, 'That's a great poet!'

He's irreplaceable as the stolidest tree or a baby's gossamer wail.

Of course, he's the best Hartford's got or any sunny vale of blackbirds innumerable.

But a mother once said to her child, 'There goes a great poet!'

The comity of a poet who'd walked past her in the rain and got in his 2 hours reading

before work! Mothers know love fears no loss through the spite

of shanty hearts, no intimidation by weaklings who can't work with their own hands,

Not even the terrible destruction of wine in new bottles!