Assurance

T. Egon Schiele: "Four Trees," 1918

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or in the silence after lightning before it says
its names — and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles — you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rock, and years. You turn your head —
that’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.

—William Stafford

Find more of this poet's poems here...Note especially "A Ritual to Read to Each Other" and "Simple Talk" here

Stafford was an American pacifist/conscientious objector. Read more about him. He's new to me as well...

As an enormously admired writer, he traveled thousands of miles each year to give readings and to encourage aspiring poets throughout the United States, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Germany, Austria, Poland and many other countries.

This itself says a lot about the man and artist!