In the Grove

Jane Kenyon

She lay on her back in the timothy
and gazed past the doddering
auburn heads of sumac.

A cloud—huge, dignified,
and calm—covered the sun
but did not, could not, put it out.

The light surged back again. . . .

Nothing could turn her then
from that joy so violent
and hard to distinguish from pain.

University of Virginia Virginia Quarterly Review
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University of Virginia
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