EARTH*
 
All• long  or• earth  ages  spin 
the  soft  to  unsoft  hardened  earthboll• 
grim  the  eggcrust•  knit  the  allwrasm 
clombond  hell . . 

all• long  or• earth  earks  and  cares 
and  drees  and  dreams• • 
while  day  by  day  by  dayred  mornlight 
eatgiver  grovels  in  the  grist 
and  awe  and  aware  hie  forth : 
to  rive  and  rise  and  reap  and  rot : 
and  tether  and  team  and  thrill  and  thrust : 
and  hulk  and  harrow  and  heave  and  heel . . 
O  evenrest  and  sleep! . . 

erce :  erce :  erce :  earthmother. 
or• earth  ages  hold  the  fold.

                              (1934)

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* Cox intended his ‘nature poems’ to be read aloud, and developed a
typography to guide the reader. A key to these typographical cues is given in
the Preliminary Note to the Gogmagog book, 9 POEMS FROM NATURE (1959),
which is a sequence of nature poems from 1937:

. [full stop] = a pause of one full breath.
. . [two full stops] = a pause of two full breaths, etc.
: [colon] = a half-breath pause.
• [elevated, smaller dot] = a slight pause without taking breath.

- BH/03