CAN A WORD BE MAPPED?
["can a word be mapped"
-Dr. Maureen O'Neill, from her website "map passion"]
testing the acoustics in my last cathedral
I folded up the petal of a song
into my best pocket
like a map only clouds configure-
not to scale
I wander and
I wonder why
the sun is leaking light and
I'm afraid-
already the wounded images are
in hiding and "nowhere" is written
large across the sky
though not in script of gold
can a word be mapped?
or will it fly like a color wheel
falling off a sunset sky
or like a ghost ship sailing
on no water
it's the marbled music I
can't find anymore
no matter how I try
since moving from an old neighborhood
though I
cast my Mercator net
so wide so wide
from the mark
that distance cannot measure
can a word be mapped
or must we live
blind and deaf to music
in the end
wondering where the poets went?
ceding their diamond letters
one by one-
mary angela douglas 29 july 2010
