This is a rather wretched place,
All things considered:
More paradox than paradise;
A poky little patch of dust and scrub
Now parched, now drowned,
Shaken and, as often, stirred;
A heaven gone to ground,
Ground gone to seed,
Thorn- and thistle-crowned
And for the very birds €”
The dove, the hardy thrush,
The brown chat with his melancholy word.
It’s an abated wish,
This dense and dropping orb,
A momentary, dark, full-throated hush;
A nascent sun, an infant star,
This crib of Adam-Christ:
Worth falling and worth rising for.
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Jonathon Penny took his MA in Renaissance literature at BYU and his PhD in 20th Century British literature from the University of Ottawa. He has taught at universities in the U.S. and Canada, and now lives with his family in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates where he is Assistant Professor of English at UAE University. He has published on Wyndham Lewis and apocalyptic literature and is currently at work on several books of poetry for precocious pipsqueaks under the penname €œProfessor Percival P. Pennywhistle. € Bits and pieces may be found here. In addition to those he has published on WIZ, he has grown-up poems forthcoming in Dialogue and with Peculiar Pages Press. He misses Spring.
To read more of Jonathon’s poems published on WIZ, go here, here, and here.
*contest entry*
Wilderness Interface Zone 