Tuesday, July 20, 2021

On Reading Again His Verses

    • (for William Butler Yeats)
      again at the crossroads of the Celtic Twilight
      I make alas, again my all too temporary home
      hearing again as though they were my own
      these verses of love outworn as a clouded an insistent
      travailing breath
      on the pane of an Eternal wandering.
      how shall I prolong the moment
      when words were this beautiful unto Death
      and when the heart that sang them understood
      all the ways of the enchanted wood and love that faded not with Time.
      what have you got in your lost unaccountable unaccountable pockets
      oh modern, postmodern age, in the Greatcoat of your muted literacy
      in exchange for this
      I ask with the moon in my wrists
      till the specter of that Rose that Rose of all the world arises no more nor the waters of Sligo, the murmuring of bees.
      yet in the embattled consciousness remains
      the ash stirred imprint of these.
      mary angela douglas 20 july 2021'8 october 2021





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