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This poem is taken from PN Review 153, Volume 30 Number 1, September - October 2003.

'A Compound March' John Peck



1

Place of the lion in evening;
situation of good
in the shiver of its morning;
fact's healing salt; amber's
ardour; the march of unities;
the countermarches of tributaries;
forgiveness's silt; awe's ease;
harbour of the shrike's plunge; jetty
of welcome; port's rocking pause;
peace, a fire inwrapping;
resurgence, a fire gone out; a swung latch;
the city, a compound march; old paint's rolled seams;
the republic, a quilt of equilibrations;
home a tongue unthought of; the oil of action;
iron door on railed wheels rolling
to one side; a burden carried;
...


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