How Can I Praise Beautiful Poems

how can I praise beautiful poems
on treating people badly?
on running off with the prize

while others on shore remain
having no boat to cross
resigned to the weeping rains.

what seems beautiful
can perhaps be theft.
what seems innocently sleeping,

piteously dreaming
can perhaps be, scheming.
jeweled snake

coiled at the breast.
what seems lyrical
can perhaps be Death

in a beguiling disguise.
but it is beautiful even
if poorly worded

to defend honor.
it is beautiful even if
you strain at metaphors

to regard love as holy;
to understand: the beautiful
flows from God

to whom is due reverence
even if you can't spell.

mary angela douglas 27 december 2015