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.