Gifts of Rain

I:

Cloudburst and steady downpour now
for days.
                 Still mammal,
straw-footed on the mud,
he begins to sense weather by his skin. 

A nimble snout of flood
licks over stepping-stones
and goes uprooting.
                          He fords
his life by sounding.
                         Soundings. 

Seamus Heaney.