This poem is taken from PN Review 36, Volume 10 Number 4, March - April 1984.

The Parable of the Sower

Clive Wilmer

I

The sower goes out to sow. His sense and form
Move only in a landscape of stained glass;
  The leads like ivy stems,
  Enmeshing, bind him in.
Outside, it is afternoon; inside, the sun
Irradiates a face in shadow - eyes
  Inclined toward the earth
  Crimsoning underfoot.
The glory round about and through his limbs
Is vision in excess of daily need,
  Devotion in the work
  Dispersed beyond the seed.

II

Victorian glass of eighteen ninety-seven,
Replacing the clear light in the west wall
  In homage to a time
  That built as if for ever.
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