POETRY, CODED AMONG THE STARS (SECOND, FINAL VERSION WITH THE WINESAP PASSAGE ADDED)

 

POETRY, CODED AMONG THE STARS (SECOND, FINAL VERSION WITH THE WINESAP PASSAGE ADDED)

Poetry, coded among the stars

density of time and of angels

chronicler of the blue blue air

keeper of capsized Atlantis, Adonis

Oh Icarus. O scouring the Winesap darkness sorted

All only mine or everyone's, valentine

Altar of the heart swept clean.

Sieve of sorrow, snows, the pause in the routine

that lets through 

the countries of the distraught illuminated. revived.

inner webbing in which are caught, bells, bells, birdsong

windchimes on the wind

the amulets we have no other names for, otherwise

enterprise immeasuarable

the foundering on the rocks the kingdom of ticks and tocks

and children's nursery rhymes, the slip stream of beauty

careening of all the gold Athenian names

the last wind down the downs that disappeared

in the one tear remaining from the fairytale

and all the riddles, labyrinths devised by man or God

whistled down the winds of our inarticulations, devastations

tiny regrets writ large who are we who still cannot spell your name

dream sod we stand on and then float away with

the green and the gold of our prevaricating summers; 

lifted away from the beloved names at the end

how much how far how near how dear you are

amid the din, the bills, the racket

snow brushed from a winter jacket

I dreamed of a language like this

the last letter home

before the Great Unknown

the exiles weeping over Jerusalem

the solitary in the corner

losing language, ebbing tides of pearl

will this survive

shall Pegasus be ours

after all these hours. These epochs.

we will not unsay your saying, kingdom of broidered nightingales

our plea before God however obscure

all, all the words for endurance catalogued and then not

for even if the world be doomed there is no end in you: 

the last scrap of the map

sing song, clap along, afric drum. Magnificence

to all intents

well shone in the kingdoms of plum

our babble, intuited by Love

the once upons

little nestling bird fallen out of the nest

and impossible.

mary angela douglas 15 january 2024