Friday, April 20, 2012

Another Crystal Ship Is Going Down

[for the poet John Keats]

“ whose name was writ in water”

for Immortal, Timeless Poetry…and the children-                            
for whom it was all and will be, written down.
and not forgotten…

“The very music of the name has gone…”

John Keats, Endymion

and for Dr. Robert J. Connelly

another crystal ship is going down
there where the violet waters cannot reach the sun
or where, the bargained-over heart
is run aground
no longer feeling anything at all
for the Attic messengers berated and                        

berated and  
thrown overboard
in waters that won’t register the sound
of this bleak sowing.

the moon on bartered waters gives no light.
dim are the trees that used to
green the shore.                                                                                                  
jingoistic captains seize the day:
cueing the numb musicians on the deck
for one last, auctioned song
to bear doomed passengers along
cold, flooded passageways.

we’re losing time and memory every day
observing the Grail float by us on the Tides
and willing it all away to starfish
while we just hang on in the frozen waters
to the driftwood prayers
we must remember…

“Our Father…

another crystal ship is going down-
another and another – everywhere -
alive with diamond words…
that must be spared
though we’re -  just – ballast - to them:

the odd Ringmasters crowing
at the glint of Beauty drowned
and going down
they’ll claim -but it’s not true-
in Ophelia-coloured waters=

Not - this - time.

for we have heard-

though half-awake
the mist-bright mermaids surging Home
and we may see, half-blinded through our tears-
that when curbed lovely words
disintegrate – they cry out in soft rains:

“Hallowed be thy Name”…

however long we wait, we wait

at the edge of these coiled waters-
clear on their Return on the evening's tide.

pearl were the hulls
now singing on their way, so “optional”.
sheer Pearl, the tears of God
who only sent them all  

(“Deliver Us From Evil…”)

to save our children
in the glacial days ahead…
treading implacable waters…

mary angela douglas 18-20 april 2012








No comments: