Monday, February 03, 2020

To Virginia Woolf On The Voyage Out

the distance between the words is the way you had come
the way you had been led thinking that you had time
that time was a kind of ocean that you were on

and so you floated there or were dashed by waves
or you went under only to emerge once more to the air
in a hidden mermaid music beyond despair and published

and the sunlight no longer filtering

through dark green waters
then you made ripples ripples that disappeared
and other things disappeared too, with you

leaving their imprint on your mind your heart like a spare
consciousness or on ours or on mine
your floating fleeting heart known only to God

the hidden mast who asked oh daughter of the wave
what brought you here

rippling and rippling
out of time at last.
and crowned with the flowering of language.


mary angela douglas 3 february 2020

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