In Eden, Adam Had been so busy Making up smug Nouns of dominion, He hadn’t watched

I felt both pleasure and a shiver as we undressed on the slippery ba… and then plunged into the wild riv… I waded in; she entered as a diver… Watching her pale flanks slice the…

I stood inside myself like a dead tree or a tower. I pulled the rope of braided hair and high above me

God planned a static planet, With plants that bore No offspring—as if Acts had no consequence. But Eve was there to change

After our march from the Hudson t… of Cemetery Hill, we Boy Scouts… the sermons and hot sun while Girl… lolled among graves in the maple s… When members of the veterans’ hono…

Here’s a seed. Food for a week. Cow skull in the pasture; back room where the brain was: spacious hut for me.

God wanted labels That would stick To fur or bark or leaf. Hadn’t he given Adam A tongue?

Snapping turtles in the pond eat b… and frogs. They do us no harm when… But early this spring two Canada… lingered, then built a nest. What… heard of, our neighbor feared: gos…

Grieving came from leaving Eden But leaving Eden was not grief— It was a lesson in lessening— How things, diminishing, Become more precious.

Hunkered down, nerve-numb, in the carnal hut, the cave of self, while outside a storm rages.

Nouns were a giant Confining— Adam felt the sounds He made Build bars around

Eve sensed this Was something Words could do In a fallen world: Move a thing’s

To the trees, leaving Came naturally— A green extension Of their being. But for Adam and Eve

How beautiful they were, Adam thought— These beasts and birds; These tall grasses And flowering trees.