Another one from the _Penguin_ _Book of Canadian Verse_. Hot stuff from the higher latitudes! _‘In June and gentle oven’_ In June and gentle oven Summer kingdoms simmer As they come And flower and leaf and love Release Their sweetest juice. No wind at all On the wide green world Where fields go stroll- ing by And in and out An adder of a stream Parts the daisies On a small Ontario farm. And where, in curve of meadow, Lovers, touching, lie, A church of grass stands up And walls them, holy, in. Fabulous the insects Stud the air Or walk on running water, Klee-drawn saints And bright as angels are. Honeysuckle here Is more than bees can bear And time turns pale And stops to catch its breath And lovers slip their flesh And light as pollen Play on treble water Till bodies reappear And a shower of sun To dry their languor. Then two in one the lovers lie And peel the skin of summer With their teeth And suck its marrow from a kiss So charged with grace The tongue, all knowing Holds the sap of June Aloof from seasons, flowing.                                     ANNE WILKINSON # Explanation