The North Shore Poets’ Forum will meet this Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (about), at the Beverly Public Library in the Program Room.

I am supposed to do a brief program on rhymed poetry. .. Please help! Bring a rhymed poem by a favorite write to share.

Also, bring a poem or two for gentle critique.

In the meantime, and in the spirit still of St. Patrick’s Day, here’s another poem by an Irish writer.

THE RAM’S HORN

By John Hewitt

I have turned to the landscape because men disappoint me:

the trunk of a tree is proud; when the woodmen fell it,

it still has a contained ionic solemnity:

it is a rounded event without the need to tell it.

….

I have never been compelled to turn away from the dawn

because it carries treason behind its wakened face:

even the horned ram, glowering over the bog hole,

though symbol of evil, will step through the blown grass with grace.

….

Animal, plant or insect, stone or water,

are, every minute, themselves; they behave by law.

I am not required to discover motives for them,

or strip my heart to forgive the rat in the straw.

….

I live my best in the landscape, being at ease there;

the only trouble I find I have brought in my hand.

See, I let it fall with a rustle of stems in the nettles,

and never for a moment suppose that they understand.