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Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry: A Prayer, A Welcome
Edited and introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate
Today?s short lyric by the late Maine poet David Walker greets the arrival of a newborn with both praise and wisdom.
A Prayer, A Welcome by David Walker
Little wrinkle from my flesh, eyelidcurling down at my fool?s prattle; childbefore whom I?m the more child?your futureolder than my past? Forgive the fatherI?ll be, become all I can never know;teach me to hold you for a while, and thento let go.
Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2003 Wesley McNair. Reprinted from the Maine Poets, Down East Books, 2003, by permission of Wesley McNair. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Special Consultant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at mainepoetlaureate@gmail.com or 207-228-8263. Take Heart: Poems from Maine, an anthology collecting the first two years of this column, is now available from Down East Books.
