Sarah Emerson Potter '77, today the director of the Bates bookstore, was one of John Tagliabue's thesis students, and that mentorship turned into a long friendship. John would send her poems after the birth of each of her three children, such as this one after her son Zach's birth in September 1982:

a bee grew very large it must have been God because it reached the flower
a woman grew very large she must have been the mother of God because
    she had a baby
a baby grew very large he must have been the sky because he
    had many moods and thoughts
a Thought grew very large it must have been God because it
    contained all weddings and religions
a celebration grew very large it must have been the descendants
    of rainbows
because everybody was in the sun
the sun grew very large it must have been the Word
    from which God was imagined
the image grew very large it must have been mankind
    because it was amidst all the stars