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Wind by James Fenton   
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Wind

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  This is the wind, the wind in a field of corn.
Great crowds are fleeing from a major disaster
Down the green valleys, the long swaying wadis,
Down through the beautiful catastrophe of wind.

Families, tribes, nations, and their livestock
Have heard something, seen something. An expectation
Or a gigantic misunderstanding has swept over the hilltop
Bending the ear of the hedgerow with stories of fire and sword.

I saw a thousand years pass in two seconds.
Land was lost, languages rose and divided.
This lord went east and found safety.
His brother sought Africa and a dish of aloes.

Centuries, minutes later, one might ask
How the hilt of a sword wandered so far from the smithy.
And somewhere they will sing: 'Like chaff we were borne
In the wind. ' This is the wind in a field of corn.

James Fenton


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  Comments about this poem (Wind by James Fenton )
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  Peter Legur  (2/10/2007 4:15:00 AM)

The potential for catastrophe has always been in man's awareness.
To put it now, collapsing past and present, is to confront us with it in our terms, to bridge the gap between it's prophecy are reality. War, climate change,
plague, name it, we are vulnerable, and the poet creats the frightening leap from
tired prophecy to now. Good show.10.
  Amy Anston  (12/18/2006 8:37:00 AM)

very very good no wait brillant

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11/8/2009 4:23:58 AM. #.1# You Are Here: Wind by James Fenton

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