AND WAR SLEPT ON

for William Butler Yeats

I dreamed we had been lifted aloft by doves

above the treachery of earth

and the sky was a valentine

where we sang:

Eternal love has reprieved us from suffering

gone were the bells tolling for lost time

and the compline of starshine

flowered in the breeze and the evening wept

small tears like seeded pearls

and we had forgotten the turmoil of the world

as though it had not been

and war slept on

through a thousand thousand snows.

while at the Centre shone

the rood of the Rose.

mary angela douglas 26 july 2023