MY GRANDSON AJ                   1995

 

The trust with which your small hand

clasps my finger

melts the sadness of my life’s experience

and reforms my joy of hope.

 

Perhaps the most powerful knowledge of all

is naivity

because it knows not to learn

the cynicism of sophistication.

 

We can learn so much

from our young

before we teach them too much

about living the way one should.

 

But in growing old one can learn enough

of the trust from our youth

to clasp the small hand of one’s grandson

and feel the moment of that experience.