  |
|
 Amanda Jernigan is a contributing editor of the New Quarterly and Canadian Notes & Queries. She lives with photographer John Haney in St. John's, Newfoundland, where she is at work on her first collection of poems. Email a friend >> Printable version >> |
Adam's Prayer
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread:
you put this rather beautifully,
and gave me leave to sing my work
until my work became the song.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it:
a line on which a man might ring
the changes as he tills the ground
from which he was taken. Thistle, thorn
(in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed),
these too shall it bring forth to thee,
all the days of thy life till the end,
the synagogue of the ear of corn.
Poem and plowman cleave the dark.
One can't eat art. But dust is art,
and unto dust shall I return.
O let my song become my work. |
    |
|
SEARCH |
Copyright © The Poetry Foundation Privacy Policy/Terms of Use Contact