Thomas Beauchamp-Arnold

This is the Book of the Earth, the field of grass flourishing.
This is the region that feeds forth souls under the old orders
returning to the dominion of its King and Queen.
It is only the midden heap, beauty: shards,
scraps of leftover food, rottings,
the Dump
where we read history, larvae of all dead things,
mixd seeds, waste, off-castings, despised
treasure, vegetable putrifactions
: from this adultery committed,

the plant that provides, Corn
that at Eleusis Kore brought
out of Hell, health manifest. Heracles said:
I have seen Kore.
What face more terrible? I am initiate,
prepared for Hades.
Queen of the Middenheap I have seen.
Death is prerequisite to the growth of grass.

This is the Book of the Provider.

-from "For the Lover,"
The Opening of the Field,
by Robert Duncan