Haven (For Vladimir Bukovsky)

for Vladimir Bukovsky who, among other notable things, built a castle and tended his rose trees...

I planted a rose garden in my head

and labyrinthine scented too and hedge on hedge

so when trouble came

roses were my only view and quaint

against a silk screened sky I wandered there without reply

away from cares and far far from the needling; needless sighs

and plucked them where they grew;

then more profuse my roses blew

nor torn in the seraphic winds

and I could all all trials suspend 

for that haven and the fountains pluming near

the orangeries...

and all that blended there to please, to make of solace

a flowery stair and no more ambuscados of words

or pernicious stares or the blank sum glaring everywhere

the workplace blaring the tedious forms the roaring

inspections

and the reprimands for I had roses near at hand

and hedge on hedge since I was born o the rose trees;

a bench of pearl to sit and dream of the threshed markets of the 
invisibly freed

to make of roses a faerie screen

to forget a thousand thousand stings and all the world's

scalding: the ratlike gnawing codes to oblivion assigned

and all that treacle undermined

where the pale and the emerald waters flowed.

mary angela douglas 11 july 2020;revised 17 july 2020