The Poem: 1: Starting today the Independent will be publishing one work by a contemporary poet every weekday. The series begins with this poem by Thom Gunn.

----------------------------------------------------------------- The Reassurance ----------------------------------------------------------------- About ten days or so After we saw you dead You came back in a dream. I'm all right now you said. And it was you, although You were fleshed out again: You hugged us all round then, And gave your welcoming beam. How like you to be kind, Seeking to reassure. And, yes, how like my mind To make itself secure. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Thom Gunn was born in 1929. His first book of poems was published while he was still an undergraduate. He moved to North California in 1954 and now lives in San Francisco. The Man with Night Sweats is his first collection for 10 years and contains a set of poems about the death of friends from Aids, from which this poem is taken. The Man with Night Sweats is published by Faber and Faber at pounds 5.99.