The bud
\nstands for all things,
\neven for those things that don\u2019t flower,
\nfor everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
\nthough sometimes it is necessary
\nto reteach a thing its loveliness,
\nto put a hand on its brow
\nof the flower
\nand retell it in words and in touch
\nit is lovely
\nuntil it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
\nas Saint Francis
\nput his hand on the creased forehead
\nof the sow, and told her in words and in touch
\nblessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
\nbegan remembering all down her thick length,
\nfrom the earthen snout all the way
\nthrough the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
\nfrom the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
\ndown through the great broken heart
\nto the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
\nfrom the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
\nthe long, perfect loveliness of sow.
\n___________________________<\/p>\n
Galway Kinnell<\/em> in<\/em> Three Books: Body Rags; Mortal Acts, Mortal Words; The Past<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n