Two Pastorals for Samuel Palmer at Shoreham, Kent

T
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!


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