To The Minor Poets In A Heartless Hour, Speaking Love to Power

[to Valerie Macon, who lives for all poetry.
and who rose to the occasion]

in almost any poem
someone else's heart is on the line.
to think this way

is to be subject to the rejoinder
too much schmaltz.

I think, really? Is it better to ignore
as has been done before
of course, always in the name

of Higher Criticism a poet, a peon's inalienable soul?
of holding to golden literary standards
the person writing anything at all.

in their starry scrawl

as if in the dock, or in jail.
to make them feel, they failed.
is this necessary?

we are all small.
we all try to be known.
some for power.

to occupy a throne.

I am not speaking of those. 
even small insects in their summer fields compose
and float up to God

their miniature hymns.
are unacknowledged poets
not as worthy as them?

mary angela douglas 8 july 2019