22 AUGUST 1987, Page 28

Oasis

The terms of the analogy are strained— And that is as it should be, for the world Is nothing but the world and things are called By names they cannot answer to. Constrained By what I am to name things, when I see How beauty proper to a watered place Extends beyond it into wilderness I call this 'paradise' which it can't be.

And it is paradise I think of too When your cool body's fluency and grace Come near, and nearer, in this desert place As if the Lord were beckoning through you— Though God is darkest when his creatures bless And paradise is of the wilderness.

Clive Wilmer