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.