In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread:

you put this rather beautifully,

and gave me leave to sing my work

until my work became the song.

 

In sorrow shalt thou eat of it:

a line on which a man might ring

the changes as he tills the ground

from which he was taken. Thistle, thorn

 

(in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed),

these too shall it bring forth to thee,

all the days of thy life till the end,

the synagogue of the ear of corn.

 

Poem and plowman cleave the dark.

One can’t eat art. But dust is art,

and unto dust shall I return.

O let my song become my work.

Amanda Jernigan, Adam’s prayer