dum possum volo

Intermezzo of sorts, something to do with gifts.
In plainer style, or sweeter, some figment
of gratitude and reconciliation
with the near things, with remnancy and love:

to measure the ownerless, worn, eighteenth-
century tombstones realigned like ashlar;
encompass the stark storm-severed head
of a sunflower blazing in mire of hail.

Geoffrey Hill's book of poetry Daybook II: Odi Barbare is forthcoming from Cultag Press.



This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 26 Number 4, on page 31
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