The Seeing Heart And The Scarecrow Rendered In Charcoal

(for William Wordsworth)

there, by the Seeing Heart, and not the stream


that makes its murky way into an ancient seam

I paused and did not want to go again.

invisible world made more invisible with Time

how can I see you locked into rhyme

that falls away

made for the coffee crowd.

these ragged rocks convey what might have been

I sense in the world at large such desolation.

friendlessness

and all is scarecrow; a highway dream sign

reads: Beware.

Here there's no crossing at all.

let ravens seem rubied in the sunset air

but I know better.

this is not lark blue happiness

but a cunning stair, where the gnats

rise after long rains and

the havens have grown over everywhere

the cataracts bode no good.

and where you stood once,

in an enchanted wood

an emerald light filtering down

has morphed into a town foreboding;

the scarecrow's straw tears.

mary angela douglas 7 july 2019