Psalm on Sifnos

One does not want,
O Lord, to heap
Up by still waters
Of words a cairn
But hopes to attend
A small covert
Of tamarisk
Whose leaves salty
Yet feathery
Will shed light over
A thickened plot.

One wants at last
To cede the field
To tamarisk
And mastic tree,
To olive and stone,
Stones in the fruit,
Seed in the stones.

--Stephen Yenser (1941- ), Kansas-born American poet, editor, critic, and professor emeritus at UCLA, winner of both the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and the Bernard F. Prize for Poetry from the Paris Review.

Sifnos is a Greek island in the Cyclades known for its pottery and as the birthplace and inspiration for poets.