A Silence
past parentage or gender beyond sung vocables the slipped-between the so infinitesimal fault line a limitless interiority beyond the woven unicorn the maiden (man-carved worm-eaten) God at her hip incipient the untransfigured cottontail bluebell and primrose growing wild a strawberry chagrin night terrors past the earthlit unearthly masquerade (we shall be changed) a silence opens * the larval feeder naked hairy ravenous inventing from within itself its own raw stuffs' hooked silk-hung relinquishment behind the mask the milkfat shivering sinew isinglass uncrumpling transient greed to reinvest * names have been given (revelation kif nirvana syncope) for whatever gift unasked gives birth to torrents fixities reincarnations of the angels Joseph Smith enduring martyrdom a cavernous compunction driving founder-charlatans who saw in it the infinite love of God and had (George Fox was one) great openings
From The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt, published by Alfred A. Knopf. Copyright © 1997. Used with permission from the Estate of Amy Clampitt.