This is a poem which we read critically with Ariana for a college English class--
we talked about it at length, the 4 of us on our recent visit, taking Noah to the
beach at Tybee Island, in a driving rainstorm : I think it is a great poem
by a father that is so powerfully expressed - with the weight of the snow
on his heart.

It is not about war - but it is about life, paring it down to the barest bones of it-
Reality! What's the price?

Night Thoughts Over A Sick Child
Philip Levine


Numb, stiff, broken by no sleep,
I keep night watch. Looking for
signs to quiet fear, I creep
closer to his bed and hear
his breath come and go, holding
my own as if my own were
all I paid. Nothing I bring,
say, or do has meaning here.

Outside, ice crusts on river
and pond; wild hare come to my
door pacified by torture.
No less ignorant than they
of what grips and why, I am
moved to prayer, the quaint gestures
which ennoble beyond shame
only the mute listener.

No one hears. A dry wind shifts
dry snow, indifferently;
the roof, rotting beneath drifts,
sighs and holds. Terrified by
sleep, the child strives toward
consciousness and the known pain.
If it were mine by one word
I would not save any man,

myself or the universe
at such cost: reality.
Heir to an ancestral curse
though fallen from Judah's tree,
I take up into my arms my hopes,
my son, for what it's worth give
bodily warmth. When he escapes
his heritage, then what have

I left but false remembrance
and the name? Against that day
there is no armor or stance,
only the frail dignity
of surrender, which is all
that can separate me now
or then from the dumb beast's fall,
unseen in the frozen snow.


---from this website (Link)
which has 94 poems by Philip Levine.