Poetry And Its Banishment

to John Keats

I saw Poetry as if it were a golden sea
and many ships were there, I thought
and their loveliness, and I cared about this-

and skiffs of crystal and barges
of the rare umber.
and this was a legacy

and a music that could not go under.
this was at the begining
and in the cool of morning

and the mourning doves
did not mourn then.
that came later

when the sea abated
and the ships grew plain
and the light was no longer

jeweled. with the kingdoms, my kingdoms, shunned.
and oh they did not want;
they did not think it meet

that Poetry could be that sweet
and such a surcease
from pain

and the old names
the heraldic, the fantastic
the murmuring lyrical names

they struck dumb.

mary angela douglas 17 may 2016