1 Shadow

Then the knockings the lights in houses the barn doors

I cannot spell
I cannot run
My heart murmurs

My feet make no tracks in the sand

2 Without any irritable reaching after fact and reason Keats

I dreamed I was born in a boat
Smooth wood: who can imagine at sea

that one can be housed perfectly?

3 Pray you, tread softly

The ice hook swings opens its mouth
And bites

My father lowers it gently
As if it were full

Of coins and heat and prompting:

Who asked me for words I had not yet seen —

4 A spell cannot be tattered & mended like a coat ED, letter 663

Look, Mother.Look, Father.
All that remains is fathom —

A simple girl, I watch from the shade porch:
radiance can make you weary

All that closing & opening, opening
& closing

5 The shut rose shall dream of our loves and awake/ Song: ‘Hush, hush, tread softly’ Keats
Full blown

I am waking, still and further

Whom not having seen, I love: who withdraws from us

6 Felt the meadows the light held inside its flowing Graham, Easter Morning Aubade

A red boat bangs the rocks no rider no paddle

How softly summer shuts with the creaking of a door
How softly summer shuts with the creaking of a door ED, letter 665

Little clocks ticking in the heat

7 If the transitive be but the minor, we shall need a large accession
of strength, for the major sweetness ED, letter 654

I stir soup in the red pot then I need only the spare

room the one in the top of the house ::

booty of the dove —