POETRY SWAP MEET: Poetry we don't usually know about, or?

My Grandmothers eighty six birthday by Laura Gilpin

the cake at my grandmother\s birthday party
was chocolate with white icing which is her favorite
although she could not blow out all the candles
she said her wish already had come true

she is the spider woman of my nightmares
daid to be a cross between myself, my mother
and the nun at the hospital who wrapped
her black arms around me and held me

she is the  one who weaves her way
down the dark hall to find me
whose shadow creeps over me while I sleep
whose voice unwinds like a thread

she is the one who tends me
with her silent hands
touches me with her dark fingers
she is the only one who can hear me
calling out "help me, help me, hel me"
she is the only one who really cares

this is a piece\part\quote I found in a book, the quote is by Thomas Merton

<the rain surrounded the cabin
with a whole world of meaning, of scenery, of rumor.
Think of it all: all that speech pouring down
selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch
of dead leaves soaking the trees
filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water
washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside
nobody started it nobody is going to stop it
it will take as long as it wants, teh rain
as long as it talks I am going to listen