An unhearing God

St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, where famed poet Wallace Stevens is said to have converted to Catholicism in his last days.

“If there must be a god in the house, let him be one
That will not hear us when we speak: a coolness,

“A vermilioned nothingness, any stick of the mass
Of which we are too distantly a part.’’

— From “Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit,’’ by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), Hartford-based poet, insurance company executive and lawyer.