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This poem is taken from PN Review 100, Volume 21 Number 2, November - December 1994.

Five Poems Clive Wilmer

Saxon Buckle
in the Sutton Hoo treasure

His inlaid gold hoards light:
A gleaming thicket to expel,
With intricacy worked by skill,
The encroaching forest night
Where monsters and his fear dwell.

Gold forest tangles twined by will
Become a knot that closes in
The wild beasts that begin
Beyond his habitation.
An object for his contemplation,

From which three rivets gaze:
A beast's head forested within,
That clasps his swordbelt to his waist
...


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