Sublime

Beowulf

by Richard Wilbur

.

The land was overmuch like scenery,

The flowers attentive, the grass too garrulous green;

In the lake like a dropped kerchief could be seen

The lark's reflection after the lark was gone;

The Roman road lay paved too shiningly

For a road so many men had traveled on.

.

Also the people were strange, were strangely warm.

The king

You belong to the world

by Carrie Fountain

as do your children, as does your husband.

It’s strange even now to understand that

you are a mother and a wife, that these gifts

were given to you and that you received them,

fond as you’ve always been of declining

invitations. You belong to the world. The hands

that put a peach tree into the earth exactly

where