There's a fair number of poems in this book which
have to do with getting through hard times one way or another.
I think I will read you one of the three I've brought.
That's probably enough of getting through hard times.
And like many of the poems in this book,
it has heart in the title.
This one is called "Mule Heart."
On the days when the rest have failed you,
let this much be yours: flies, dust, an unnameable odor,
the two waiting baskets, one for the lemons
and passion, the other for all you have lost.
Both empty.
It will come to your shoulder.
Breathe slowly against your bare arm.
If you offer it hay, it will eat.
Offer it nothing, it will stand as long as you ask.
Little bells of the bridle will hang beside you
quietly in the heat and the trees' thin shade.
Do not let its sparse mane deceive you or the way
the left ear swivels into dream.
This too is a gift of the gods, calm and complete.