Tuesday, December 24, 2019

For Helen Keller Seeing All

spelling the blue clouds indistinguishable from skies
I may come to the sense of things seen never with my eyes
but understood

the leafblown missionary green of woods
the cinnamon of earth, the blowing tide
the secret tolling of an inner bell

inside all spelling done
I had come to love so well

before they ever ever sang
to me the names of God the sweet mild sun
and then the floods came down

like liquid doves fluttering

in the touch of water and vividness arose
to link my heart to the name of the rose
the utterance divine, all things now

beneath their shapes reveal
the cut of orange and the orange peel
the waves of light illimitable

the message of small birds
the weight and heft of language
on the things unheard.

mary angela douglas 24  december 2019

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