Again On Dry Land We Praise You Lord

even in the dragon's mouth oh Lord you sang to us

we don't know how we slept

and sometimes even dreamed

only to wake continually to the

nightmare of the everyday

prolonged

in a grey mist and overcast

your silken moons appeared

so suddenly through the leaves

your fierce embroideries and

we were led through silver we were led

not feeling our footsteps, feathery on cold ground

sometimes so far from harm as to forget

the difference between dream and dream

in the before and after of it all

so each fresh wilderness dismayed;

then cog-caught were the stars

and labyrinthed,  bound as in a book

whose pages you kept turning

hastening the end we could not see

where the tide turns back again-

leaving again the space to live

mary angela douglas 9 october 2013;revised 18 october 2013