BELMONT STAKES, 1973
Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes,
Planet-shaking meteors, the preposterously intense
Furnaces of suns.
Things measurable:
Equations represent them.
600 million tons of hydrogen fused to helium
Every second in the depths of our sun
(Unremarkable among suns):
Numbers that numb a mind.
But what ignites a heart
Has no measure.
In 1970 (so we count our planet’s travels,
Cued to the affairs of men),
Was born a horse more than animal
Drawn to a hidden star
Impelled by forces
That threw even coldly calculating oddsmakers
Into speechlessness.
Needing a name,
As we use names to hang our dreams on,
Humans named this presence
Secretariat.
A prosaic tag
Slapped on the transcendent.
No matter: in the end
Any name for him would have gathered wonder,
As a mountain gathers storms.