Paradise

1.

I have not written
about paradise on
purpose:  but here
it is, all around me.

2.

A very wide valley
full of rolling dip-
ping dripping land woods
cedars dark green fields
the pearls of a woman I
know:  the knoll in the
middle of the hughest field,
where the road goes through
a shallow cut toward a village
and the empty railway station.

3.

Today tuleps in the front court
opened their chalices, widened
and became blowsy, bees were working,
one in each flower's cup.  Fruit trees
are in bloom and every day more and
more buds come out on the trees of
the great tree avenue.

4.

I have a fear of trying to
own paradise, for dread of
taking out title deeds to
it and making it my real estate,
as I have everything else in
life, for apprehension of devouring
it like a feast, making paradise
my party, festival: and so losing it.