If We Are Aggrieved It May Be

IF WE ARE AGGRIEVED IT MAY BE

if we are aggrieved it may be

that we plant rose gardens where only the dust blooms

even so there remains the rose of the mind

and in the mind, the breeze that cools, lime flower soft

and in the mind the green land eternal hovering aloft

where it is always sunrise

Eden is there. even under a winter sun concealed

where we gather shadows and are paid poorly for it.

the source of things dries up. the leaves are desultory

drifting in the wind thin as brown paper and nothing to wrap

in it so go the days. and everything once loved, away.

fluttering. over the abyss of Song.

but in the mind. in the mind and in the poem lit like a candle

through the night

Your Presence Lord is a thousand gardens blooming and prolonged;

my heart, plighted again

the scent of citrus. the jasmine wind

everything we missed when

we were far from home

dreamed of again

and setting sail

and the looking glass gleam

of all the bright past,

redeemed all our sodden griefs

from out their jails;

and You prevail.

mary angela douglas 25 october 2020