Poetry:

...Anne Porter HERE OH EARTH The old man living In his rented room Grows lonely as the night comes on Especially in winter And the boy shooting drugs On the tenement roof Is lonely whether or not He has companions Lovers lie sleeping Side In side A wilderness between them And their unborn infant Is already alone So soon to be discarded Even as he beans Unfolding in the womb Of his lonely mothei Because the seullerer Has overtaken us Betraying promises Estranging lovers Tearing us inwardly And tearing us apart One from another And this is why Those of us who are sated Find it so easy to ignore Those of us who arc starving And why we have been known To torture one another Why there are times When we are far more cruel Than the amman...

...Nevertheless Taken all together Or one by one We are the holiest Of all earth's creatures For he who kindled The tire of the sun He who draws out the tender leaves From the dark twigs of winter He who has whittled A cabin for the snail Has also carved our names In the palm of his hand And he became a child The better to be near us Rom in the winter-lime Horn on a journey Me grew to be a man \nd lived among us He was our healing When we were sick Our bread \l all our weddings He suffered at our hands And he forgave us He sweat from head to foot With human anguish And shedding every drop of blood To give us to each other He gave himself to us That we might live forever He gave us even more Than he has given the angels...