Two Pastorals for Samuel Palmer at Shoreham, Kent
I. “If the Night Could Get Up & Walk”
I cannot put my hand into
a cabbage to turn
on the light, but
the moon moves over
the field of dark cabbage and an
exchange fills
all veins.
The cabbage is also a globe
of light, the two globes
now two eyes in
my saturated
head!
II. “One Must Try Behind the Hills”
Eight Great Dahlias stood
beyond the Mountains.
They set fire to the Sun
in a black wood
beyond the Mountains,
in the Valley of Vision
In the Valley of Vision
the Fission of
Flowers
yields all Power
in the Valley of Vision.
Eight Suns
on Eight Stems,
aflame!
Copyright Credit: Jonathan Williams, "Two Pastorals for Samuel Palmer at Shoreham, Kent" from Jubilant Thicket: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 2005 by Jonathan Williams. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press.
Source: Jubilant Thicket: New & Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)