A Bit of Paternity

Time for a poem. Here is one by the always excellent Dick Davis, about a situation every parent – and grandparent – will be familiar with: the awful helplessness we feel in the presence of a child inconsolably, unreachably upset or hurt...A Bit of PaternityTo tell your weeping child,'This too will pass, believeMe, I've been here before'Is to be one who walksCommuning with himselfAlong a wintry shoreAnd thinks his murmured thoughtsMight calm the crashing waves,The wind's inhuman roar.