Oh That The Clear-Eyed Singers Would Return

oh that the clear-eyed singers would return
I heard them sigh
but I knew then as I know now

that if they had oh if they had
snow driven they would have been
sleet ridden and shoved and kicked

from the dais, certainly, oh and hounded.
oh that the clear eyed singers
would find an oblique way, an opaque day

to sing where the herods
could not hunt them at their ease where
yet dreams would come thick as

plumset branches lovely, lovelier,
loveliest who can choose
in a secret orchard brighter than all Mays

by another way the wise men departed
and were saved.

mary angela douglas 16 may 2015