I Found The Word "God" Languishing Under Its Own Palm Tree

I found the word 'God" languishing under its own palm tree

what have you done with my starry Hands it wept

while I slept dreamless.

I found the word "God" fugitive in the mirrors of the world

of you and I when all fairy tales crept by

even perfecting the tiny streams, snow melt in the early Springs

by my lost violets in the diary of the great befores.

it kept calling after me in triolets

of ravishing bird song and it was on the diamond wind prolonged

for the poets who refused to let it in

see, it said, shyly

I have taken my heart and cut it into all the rose pieces

and left them in the sky only for you

I have spent every coin of light

the treasury of the snows

and everything that grows

please may you only

mention My Name in one or two refrains

or think of me again as you would of clouds,

in reverie

or as a somewhat melancholy friend, archaic

anathema; though you hold me in disdain,

wounded for Beauty.

my dove. my dove.you are all I love.

take me out of the root cellar

and plant me in your desolate language!

my errant lambs.I am that I am.

mary angela douglas 16 february 2022