Paradise Recast
“in Eden, Adam can exist by himself, Life can exist by
itself; in this world, there are men and women, life
and death.”Edmund Leach: Genesis as Myth
i
In Eden Adam
turns the earth
prunes lops trains
restrains the futile growing.
Bullies from chaos
the species of chaos
the root hidden
the blossom on display.
Birds attend
to their task of rejoicing
crocus pricks in spring
acacia flames in autumn.
Adam lifts
his prelapsarian potatoes
sky holds him down
to an earthy harmony
in Eden.
ii
Indoors Isis
turns the heating
up to eighty
unpots the caviare.
Calls “Adam”
calls again “Adam”
and Adam turns from Eden
with crepuscular submission.
Carpets steam
wallpapers sweat and wither
brass leaves fall from the chandelier
and the bed lies hotly fallow.
“Come on, take off
your metaphysical galoshes.”
Adam picks up a white-hot fork
and leers at the flesh of his
turbot.
Page(s) 33-34
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The