middle earth's world,

neatly in a

row. But an

 

ancient mind works

in dirt and

gravity's one assertion.

First Field

When the earth

is empty, water

like darkness floods

 

the flat land.

Between heaven's day

and the seventh

 

work,  blood's feeble

cable is stretched

against its limit. 

 

Where gods and

animals rise, gardens

go as meaning

 

beyond these words.

The newly formed

creation takes from

 

flesh its beast,

from each bone

a name and

 

death's new plan.

And early hatreds

creep from thistle

 

to thorn.  Down-

cast and raging

on love's first

 

field, the realm's

hero is flayed.

Skin causes skin,

 

while the world

makes the world

in crisp leaves,

 

wind, and the

sight of breath

on cold spring

 

days.  All these

speak of pain

subtle in its

 

clamor.   As when

the child, dying,

sinks into its

 

skin as under

public snow.  Then

the mouth rending

 

and what begins.

At the dawn

of smoke, pungent

 

as creation, the

long chaos rises

over these trees.

At the North Border

These went to war

and these returned breathless

 

innerwordly beings

elegant in remoteness

 

we count them by their names

the sum of the anointing

 

Where the vessels are stored

where the tents are pitched

 

the matrix is open

to receive these gifts

 

The world masks the world

Space is also veiled

 

Before is at the door

After will not pass

 

The last shadow meets

its patient obligations

 

and fire can't leap

with so little to feed it

 

Then begins the counting

one spoon one goat one bowl

 

Among them you will wander

in the journeying camps

 

in cloud abodes

and earthen chambers

 

every man at his door

quails born of the sea

 

Fetch water from the rock

and at the north border

 

the thought of dust will fall

night bite down

 

Each mouth feels its word

thing: white: flash: into

 

Distance is in them

in the darkest speeches

 

in similitude and feeling

forty years of whoredoms

 

Altered by its prisoner

a familiar but dark room

 

where groping you find

mist and hill cherry

 

incense and atonement

The rod will blossom

 

and the earth open her mouth

in salience and in panic