By Galway Kinnell

A gift from Aileen of New Mexico

stands for all things,

even for those things that don't flower,

for everything flowers from within, of self-blessing;

though sometimes it is necessary

to reteach a thing its loveliness,

to put a hand on the brow

of the flower

and retell it in words and in touch

it is lovely

until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;

as Saint Francis

put his hand on the creased forehead

of the sow, and told her in words and in touch

blessings of the earth on the sow,

and the sow

began remembering all down her thick length,

from the earthen snout all the way

through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,

down through the great broken heart

to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering

from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them

the long, perfect lovliness of sow.

If you have a favourite poem, or have written one yourself, do send it to me and if I can see even the vaguest connection to TA, I will be happy to include it.