Be Sportive as the Fawn²
Timid Millipedes venture a Tango³
The Cattle have hitherto Grazed in
A Peace unbroken by Astonishment⁴
O Lion – sing the Human song of the Tooth & Soul⁵
Reserve within thy kingdom, a Mansion for the Rat⁶
Sow the Wind with wandering Neighings⁷
Joke with Hyænas – returning their Stare⁸
Wolves shall Succeed for Teachers⁹
Hope Dawns with all its Dolphins¹⁰
¹ Sylvia Plath, Wreath for a Bridal
² William Wordsworth, Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower
³ Denise Levertov, August Daybreak
⁴ George Eliot, Middlemarch
⁵ Paul Celan tr. Nikolai Popov & Heather McHugh, Coincidence Staged
⁶ Emily Dickinson, Papa Above!
⁷ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
⁸ Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark
⁹ John Milton, Paradise Lost
¹⁰ Odysseas Elytis tr. Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard, Anniversary