AT APRIL'S VERGE

 

AT APRIL’S VERGE

At April’s verge

Through all my years

I say in emeralds

Crystal clear

It’s April I longed most to be

Green as jade and full of shade

And soft and rippling

Water dipping

Out the gourd of beauty’s self

How could God give us such wealth

And birdsong most acutely felt.

Wreathe me a wreathe of all the flowers

April is my only dower

Madrigal most fitly sung

Refreshment to the heart;

And rung like a peal of bells so bright

Even in the midnight of the world.

mary angela douglas 31 march 2024

IN RETROSPECT

 

IN RETROSPECT

I stood and I looked behind at the road

Of brambles I had tread

And wondered how 

My feet could bleed

That much

And I not dead

I counted up the leaden loss

I weighed each mile and what it cost

How still I seemed to be

A little child at sea

All I had I gave to Thee

All I had I gave to Thee

even though, imperfectly.

mary angela douglas 31 march 2024

 

 

SUNG TO MY HEAVENLY FATHER ON A DAY I WAS HAPPY AGAIN

You sent me a Zodiac from the stars

Bright lemon and mauve from the moon

You sent me a bouquet of winds from the North

And the chill of the gold afternoons

Red gold presents you gave to me

In the melting of the sun

Rains perfumed like Araby

In tales of the Kingdom come

Violets in bunches down by the spring

Flashes of blue where the lightning stings

Hints of carmine, and saffron and green

and all that I can do

is sing it right back to You.

mary angela douglas 31 march 2024

A

WE WILL DRINK PURE WATER

 

WE WILL DRINK PURE WATER

We will drink pure water

Mirroring the skies

and be refreshed

and the splashing of many waters

will soothe all distress

and the citrus sun.

to be a child of the shade

to gather the shade into you as

though it were violets

this I will do

and drink orangeade

when the day is done.

Be like a lily

In the quiet vale

Where sadness pales to sheer nothing

Where what is dreamed is lived

And the place is simple to find.

mary angela douglas 29 march 2024

CUT TO THE QUICK AND BARELY STANDING GROUND

 

CUT TO THE QUICK AND BARELY STANDING GROUND

Cut to the quick and barely standing ground

Here is my general lamentation after the Fall

The battle does not end

Weary we lean like reeds by the river bank

He will not break

Though all other things may

Conspire to break us on the way

Thicker the shadows grow

And we feel undone.

Still there is the Son

Truly our Sun

The only one

Lighting up the formidable skies

Shepherd of shepherds

In our eyes

His sheltering lambs.

mary angela douglas 29 march 2024

GARCIA LORCA AND HIS GREEN WINDS

 

 

GARCIA LORCA AND HIS GREEN WINDS

Garcia Lorca and his green winds

His verdes vientos I remember when

I first heard the sound of them in his verse

The dream rush of beautiful winds on earth

Such dreamy tristeza such loveliness then

Startled me out of the mood I was in.

The pale moon is setting. The dawn rose one come.

No longer I feel what country I’m from.

It’s the country of sadness and beauty I tend

Garcia Lorca and his green winds…

mary angela douglas 29 march 2024

THOUGH I AM SMALL

 

 

THOUGH I AM SMALL

To God, my father in a time of dread

 

Though I am small

I know the king regards me

Though I am tiny

He sees me where others fail

Though I am little

He still made haste to heal me

Though I am negligible

To others

I cannot fail.

He is the King of Love

He is the King of Love

He is the King of love.

mary angela douglas 29 march 2024

 

SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO BE REMINDED

 

SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO BE REMINDED

Sometimes it helps to be reminded

Of the blue and green earth

Of its cooling waters

Of its emerald springs

Of the innocence of clouds

And tempestuous Aprils

Of the quickening to life

Of ancient stars still

Sending their light year poems to us

Of taking a deep breath

Of the perfume of trees

Their otherworldliness

Their roots gripping deep into the ground

And the earth laden with birdsong suspended in space

And still turning.

mary angela douglas 28 march 2024

SOMETIMES DISCONSOLATE

 

 

SOMETIMES DISCONSOLATE

Sometimes disconsolate the sweet bird flown

I conjure up old images and watch the sky

Impassive as a pearl

Never turning

Lucent are these days as well

And yet I cannot really tell

Time by the diffident turn of the wind

Articulation without leaves

The burden of the dreaming trees

I hear them sigh

And feel it as my own.

mary angela douglas 28 march 2024

I HAVE A PHANTOM FAMILY

 

 

I HAVE A PHANTOM FAMILY

I have a phantom family

At least of those that on earth remain

Who tell me not of funerals

Or of the long rains

Who act as though I were no leaf

Upon the family tree

Of weddings and of christenings

They hide the news from me

Should strangers ask for news of them

I say I cannot lie

Toward me this phantom family

Oh nothing will apprise.

And yet I love them

As I may

If only they could see

By ghosting me

They ghost themselves

A sorrow deep to me.

On Heaven’s shore

the radiant bloom

And there I hope to see

My brothers and my sisters

And comfort them

And feel

That there a new home

We will make

They wont ashamed be

Because I live

And plant my dream

In gentle poverty.

mary angela douglas 28 march 2024

 

 

THE LILTING WORD MUST CONFINE ITSELF TO CORNERS

 

 

THE LILTING WORD MUST CONFINE ITSELF TO CORNERS

The lilting word must confine itself to corners

Never the Light said in any storybook

Let it be scattered like gold across many waters

Let it unfold all roses, lilies, all things bright

We have garnered or stumbled on at greatest need

Never did the lilting word

Forsake the beauteous creed.

Let blue smoke from the chimney

In the picture of the schoolchildren

Billow and billow.

The shutters be green as green.

mary angela douglas 28 march 2024

 

AFTER HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN THE WILD SWANS

 

AFTER HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN THE WILD SWANS

Half sewn the final wing will shine

On the swan constellation

In dead winter

And Elise will rise vindicated

In a gown of green velvet, like the woods.

The nettles will bloom

There will be room for mercy

Beyond justice

The wounds salvaged beyond tears

For mercy beyond justice

Had shone beyond 300 years

When the spell was broken

The princes redeemed

The kings, worthy of their crowns

Cast into the sea of glass

Before The Christ.

mary angela douglas 28 march 2024

MY ARK HAD SPLINTERED

 

 

ARK

My ark had splintered

So it seemed to me

And covenants seemed lost at sea

And all my weeping comprised the Flood

As the dove returned with no branches.

What can it signify

Lord, my God

I feel so asunder

Who once was alive

I feel not bewept

But drifting here

What has become

Of the beautiful year

But light from the dark clouds

Rained down on me

Said, mercy, child. mercies

Are ever with thee.

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

I DREAMED WE STOOD IN A CINEMATIC LIGHT

 

I dreamed we stood in a cinematic light

As though the pensive years had passed us by

And all the things I had stored up to cry about

Vanished like quick clouds or in flurries melting away

We looked at our hands new branching

As if we were made of apple blossoms

No longer encased in a weariness

That always seemed to say

You have seen better days

Astonished we brooked the hill

And noted no fading light

And the stars with ever increasing enchantment

Shown in their increasing magnitudes.

and scene by quaking scene.

Oh friends, can this be I whispered into the silver night

Is it true then we are really resurrected? 

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

HAMBURGER HEAVEN

 

Sometimes we slip suddenly

Into immortal moments

In most unexpected places

Savoring the homemade dill pickles on our nostalgic hamburger

And the onion bun, the cheese a simple statement

So elegant just melted on top.

Hamburger days recall to us

Perhaps a glance out the window, of the greasy spoon

And the sun is setting behind the viridian green pines.

Just across the street.

God must be here the thought comes to you.

Here in Hamburger Heaven

Where my grandparents used to go.

Telling us that story again with its green awninged graces

The sun expiring a sudden flashpoint reflected in their faces.

 mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

PLAYHOUSE CONSIDERATIONS

 

 

PLAYHOUSE CONSIDERATIONS

Windows and doors and a roof of our own

Candy striped our delight playhouse oh so

Much we wished for you dear little space

A small porch with hydrangeas

A liveable space

For secretive children

Who still loved their house

But wanted their own

With its own Christmas mouse.

And there near the lilacs, by moonlight shaded

We’ll stack all the cushions

We happily raided.

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

 

A LIGHT ROSE COLOUR IN THE CORNER OF THE SKY

 

 

 

A LIGHT ROSE COLOUR IN THE CORNER OF THE SKY

A light rose colour in the corner of the sky

Was my favorite artwork when I was a child

And even now it seems to me

Such a retro celestial scene

Pink chalk on a slate of pearl

That fades to silver

And grey.

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

I KNOW I SHALL NOT BE AFRAID

 

 

I KNOW I SHALL NOT BE AFRAID

Broken winged we still fly on

In the golden riddle the fairytale one

And speak through a bird medley

Sky blue and clear

I know I shall not be afraid.

Heart string sundered but it sings on

Violin altered but lovely one

Music’s the same

Though we are undone

I know I shall not be afraid.

Indigo shadows across the moon

How will I know if my soul is in  tune

After capsizing all afternoon

But I know I shall not be afraid.

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

 

SHOULD I FORGET YOUR VERMILLION SKIES

 

SHOULD I FORGET YOUR VERMILLION SKIES

Should I forget your vermillion skies

Your slate blue dusks

Your wildflowers by the side of the road

goldfinch parleys through the April trees

Springs bubbling up at the headwaters

In secret icy fountaining

May it be told of me nothing in chimes

Or that I was barely on earth.

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

THE FISHERMEN AT THEIR NETS

 

THE FISHERMEN AT THEIR NETS

Cast as you cast away

All that has left you frayed

Cast that your dreams may be

Beautiful by decree

Seeing through faith instead

All that seems turned to lead

Cast that the miseries end

Cast that the joys begin.

Forevermore.

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

 

SO AS THE GREEN LEAF SINGS THE SUN

 

SO AS THE GREEN LEAF SINGS THE SUN

so as the green leaf sings the Sun

so sing my unfolding emerald angels

coast the air that quickens all

and frosts despair

though in the evening of the greening

still I feel the transparent wave

neverending, just beginning

furling over any page.

Quenching, laving always saving

Alpha and omega, come.

mary angela douglas 27 march 2024

KAFKA

 

 

KAFKA

Stranded outside the Castle

But invited by the Crown

You tiptoe on a high wire

When you are on the ground

A melancholy persistence

Leads you on your rounds

But there Is no doctor here.

Dreams pool in your eyes

regarding the seasick world

you find yourself off balance

in an attitude of pearl.

By day you file insurance claims

And wrestle with the vagaries

At night you disappear

Into stories vast and clear

Contradiction’s pure historian.

You chronicle the goings on

In somewhat of a circus song

Your face droops with light

Pooled in a strange beauty

Who can say who you are or were

Extravagant in letters

always near when you are far.

subletted on the planets

in a tethered jar.

mary angela douglas 26 march 2024

THIS SMALL ISLAND OF PRAISE

 

THIS SMALL ISLAND OF PRAISE

This small island of praise

I offer to You through the waves

Through the green gold oscillation

Of its inland seas

For every least harbour

You have ever given me

Through strange afflictions

Where your quiet Mercy shone

So that I did not feel alone

So that I felt intensely

The cloudless comfort You would bring

Past all the white singeing of pain.

mary angela douglas 26 march 2024

 

HOW ARE YOU IN YOUR LATEST WAR

 

 

HOW ARE YOU IN YOUR LATEST WAR

How are you in your latest war

Holding on to a distant shore

Grappling with the open space

Cleared out by the bombs.

How are you in the storms blown by

Lifting the ceiling to the sky

Where will you stand

When the earth gives way

Plant your roots on a diffident day

Reorient the rubbled way

Stand in the ash

with fantastic praise

to raise the roof beams high.

Think of this that you still exist

Wage your hope with an unclosed fist

Carry no scars for who did this

Look for the gold of the Son.

mary angela douglas 25 march 2024

DREAM FREEZE

 

 

DREAM FREEZE

Orange freeze

Oh, indeed

Lemon squeeze

Citrus splash

Oh, at last

Frothy, cool

Thirst is soothed

Coconut blended

All is mended

For the children

At their best

Limes and cherries

Welcome guests

Oh how merry

Mango blast

Winter’s past

Florida freeze

All of these

Sweet libations

For the nations.

Toast the Spring

Winter leaving

Tangerine day

On display.

mary angela douglas 25 march 2024

POCKETS

 

 

POCKETS

I turn old pockets wrong side out

To find if there is hidden treasure

Shamrock leaf, or tiny egg of crystal

Forgotten token to a train I used to take

To work in the city on a clerkish day

What will I find to tide me over now

When so many things have been lost somehow

Maybe a fresh wind that blows

Maybe unmelted snow

From the hollyberry bush

At home.

mary angela douglas 24 march 2024

ACROSS A HIDDEN SKY

 

 

ACROSS A HIDDEN SKY

Striving to get our points across

We barter, word for word

Seldom ever heard or hearing

What if we stopped all our debates

What if we should quiet, wait

For one bright meteor

Across a hidden sky.

Rest to our souls this silence take

Lest in the fusillades launched

We should be wounded,by mistake,

And unrepairable.

mary angela douglas 24 march 2024

 

A CERTAIN ELEGANCE PERVADES

 

 

 

A CERTAIN ELEGANCE PERVADES

A certain elegance pervades

Old theatres of the American stage

Who knows what eloquence thundered there

Mystique and fancy blended there

The ghost of Ichabod Crane

A Maytime sweet declaiming

Of what was then so currently reigning

Why do my thoughts though

Scattered though they be

Only return to the one

Beyond all the once upon

Where Lincoln was shattered. ambushed

Heedless of the dire warning in his dream.

I cannot for the life of him flgure

How plays went on there to this day

In that theatre where he was slayed.

How no one thinks this strange.

mary angela douglas 24 march 2024

EATING ICED MELON UNDER THE MOON

 

 

EATING ICED MELON UNDER THE MOON

Eating iced melon under the moon

Seems like thIs should be a festival somewhere

And starlight refreshment, movement of the clouds

Over the moon like a jade flute played

The whispering of foreign trees

The whispering of foreign trees

Is like music you said to yourself in a dream

Where luna moths danced

And the children stayed up a long time

Listening to it was crabapple whispered

By faux historians

Irrelevant Imagination’s dowered stories.

nary angela douglas 24 march 2024

POETRY IS STRONGER THAN DEATH

 

 

POETRY IS STRONGER THAN DEATH

In long ago China it must be remembered

Court poets in exile sent messages into the ether

About the plum blossoms

How they scattered in the early snow

And somehow it was inferred

All beauty passing away bears this image.

And this I remember

I caught in the silver nets of dream

Through having read them in my girlhood

Above the rattling change of dynasties

And regimes.

mary angela douglas 24 march 2024

WHERE THE BEES STING NOT THE WILTING CELLS

 

WHERE THE BEES STING NOT THE WILTING CELLS

Where the bees sting not the wilting cells

Let us call on white peace like a prism

To irradiate it all

With coolness, with the soothing of light winds

With a touch of mint and the honey of time

Let wounding cease let the cool brook waters run

Let healing music come

Flowing over the rough stones

Stand on the softened earth

And be renamed.

mary angela douglas 23 march 2024

MY PERSONAL LIBRARY, DRIFTING APART AGAIN

 

 

MY PERSONAL LIBRARY, DRIFTING APART AGAIN

Like continents drifting apart

My lost books

The ice cracks on the floe

And half is going away from the other half

And friends long cherished will not come back, I know

My lost books have departed.

How many times formed and reformed

The glittering configurations

Of the books I loved, that angels led me to

In a time of renunciation to prove my love for God

I turned my narrow shoulders away

From them all.

And then my coral reefs grew and grew

And I was a happy dreamfed mariner among them

Then came the disconsolate years when I thought it all smooth

And one by one I sold the most beautiful for pittances.

Then fortune renewed, I bought them again

Out from a strange captivity

Suffered sometimes excoriating words

From those who couldn’t understand

How one small person could be so selfish

To accumulate them, or landlords quibbled

They’re a fire hazard

Or just looked very annoyed.

Now again I have to abandon so many.

Like a beaver I will repair the breach

The grim fairytales reaped

And after death, return a day or two to say

I loved them all, each volume seemed so full of grace

And now, I love them still.

And better than I did on earth.

mary angela douglas 23 march 2024

 

LOVELY THE HOUR WHERE SILENCE REIGNS

 

 

LOVELY THE HOUR WHERE SILENCE REIGNS

Lovely the hour where silence reigns

Over the valley and over the plain

Even the shadows hold curious light

Birds in their slumber still dreaming of flight

There in the hallowed wood

Where I once played

Memories of pines and the deep summer shade

Cheer me and douse me with cool summer rain

Dripping from leaves that are fragrant again.

Why should I fret through the noise of today

When easily I can step back away

Child of the woods and the quartz bright play

Charmed and beguiled

by the joy of late May.

Secretly secretly

Sweet hidden power

To rush in deep memory

Through earliest flowers.

mary angela douglas 23 march 2024

PIECEWORK

 

PIECEWORK

Weaving back the threads the moths have broken,

Time, dust, fire spoiled

The tear of the soul on the brambles

Foraging among the wild roses and

The castle no longer visible from the road.

Weaving back the threads it feels

Like I am spinning from myself

And wounding a self at its half life

Leaking light

A gold and silver I no longer hold 

Mysteriously dispensing

Bits of broken glass, stained glass

Kaleidoscope materials the muted cry of swans

The flowers trampled on the lawns in the violet dusk

You must you must continue I hear the ghosts confirm

As long as you have even one breath left

All beauty to discern, to call aloud

A scattering in the pale green of the smallest stars.

All the mind cannot contend with with things as they are

As former trees become more gnarled

Confused by their myriad rings

Bits of what I am or was I have woven back

Singing the meager songs I still have left to sing

Taking from one part to enhance the other

Losing this way to recover even one ray of light

Sewn into the fabric what is left of my dreams

I patch it all remembering so many predecessors

Until the seams shine with finally

disappearance, my half leaning on the blossoming wind.

Mary angela douglas 22 march 2024

WE WILL BE BREATHING ON OUR OWN

 

We will be breathing on our own

In the winds that gather from the far north

Tempered with Spring

Kite weather, we will say,

Laughing, and for the whole earth, imagine!

And oxygen will seem like gold to us

From the fir trees of remembrance

the air after storms

glitter with light;

the stars be fragrant.

mary angela douglas 22 march 2024

 

PAST OUR WAKING DREAMS

 

 

PAST OUR WAKING DREAMS

They have forgotten the things we knew

Or else never known them at all

So that we feel no longer current in our time

And incapable of floating on the current

As if we stood outside of events

Like shadow courtiers of some sun king

Long ago deposed

As though all heroes were gone

By which we marked our place in the book of time

Or never been born in the first place,

Exiled or

Erased from the page by a more trending hand.

Some are.

Except in memory they cannot stand. Unless in the books

That once were fresh news not the parchment of fairy tales.

The dew on the rose of our present existence when

We were young too. We feel more absent not called

To the roll, not even on the roll sometimes

We collect old bottles and cant cash them in

Send in last centuries coupons to be redeemed.

To be redeemed is our last task now.

We collected what we could of stardust

Now we look at the constellations

And wonder if they feel aged.

If Spring with her fresh green

Will still recognize us.

As we live on

Past our waking dreams.

On the front porch of no longer

In a flowered wrapper.

The sunset in our morning tea.

Mary angela douglas 22 march 2024

NOT EXPLAINABLE BY HUMAN MEANS

 

 

NOT EXPLAINABLE BY HUMAN MEANS

The clouds have fallen into the water

Dream narratives cried so that I could not sleep

And the trees are drowning pronounced the loudspeaker

In the second dream

I will be the census of the drowning trees

I tried to speak bravely

I will be their mirror

But the armies had captured everything

And all my images were sleeping.

mary angela douglas 22 march 2024

APOCALYPTIC ANGELS SAY OR ON THE VERGE

 

 

APOCALYPTIC ANGELS SAY OR ON THE VERGE

That former things have passed away

Apocalyptic angels say or on the verge

We, too, have the urge

Ever distantly to move

From all the things we cannot prove

Ever happened to us in the first place

The view on earth has altered that much.

What new shelter should we seek

Or will our tents fly out in the wind

And all of us be emigrant again

All of us as the soul spins out its thread

Between the living and the dead.

mary angela douglas 21 march 2024

MEDITATION ON THE 23RD PSALM OF DAVID

 

MEDITATION ON THE 23^RD PSALM OF DAVID

I felt the myrrh of starlight

While I was asleep

A balm I did not cause

That streamed

Into all wounds

I knew this was not something I had caused

And I breathed Deep from the Breath

That made and sustains us all

And knew then, that I could rest

That I could settle myself o in the green pastures

That David mentioned in the testament of peace

God gave to him by the still waters of peace

And the waters of peace flowed over me too.

mary angela douglas 21 march 2024

THE PROGRAM ON WATER SAFETY

 

Wouldn’t it be fine to be in silver dressed

As if you were the queen of light or water

I said to myself one night after homework

The school assembly that week

Being on water safety.

I was chosen to be water

And envisioned my costume happily as fashioned with foil

Resembling fine droplets, the path of moonlight over a river spanned

in such a way as to be fairytale spangled and dazzling

And with a tin crown

Oh really the teacher said, exasperated;more than a little sarcastic.

She gave me a cardboard box with the flaps open  over my school dress waist

She painted it dull tempera blue with my help, and dangled it from my shoulders like a sandwhich board

And at home, I cried. That such illusions died.

mary angela douglas 20 march 2024

CONSOLATION

 

CONSOLATION

May the honeyed balm of the presence of the Lord

Remove the sting from your pain as if the dew of Hebron

Had settled on a hill, may peppermint winds carry all

inflammation away and wintergreen soothe the subtle sorrow

Of all your bones disdained

May comfort come to you Unseen

Your pillows be stuffed with angel feathers

A cooling drink of tamarind, and tangerines

Of cherries and of snow

Relieve you, a breeze through the windows

Filled with flowers and with a temperate glow

So that

You remember suddenly the consolation of your mother  singing

When you were small, sick, and lost for a while

In a turgid sea.

And watched the pure silk sails towering over

 one clear green wave.

mary angela douglas 20 march 2024

WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING

 

 

WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING

Arm me with the jonquil sword of kindness

through the clinging snows unmelted

The fierceness of it the fragility

The folk tale where the sun outlasts the wind

Its golden spears

Rain down butternut wonders from the trees

Golden effulgencies

The hoard of warmth hidden for emergencies

In the Mind of God.

The beautiful hearth of legend.

Where the moon burns to ash.

That formerly silver creatures may forage.

mary angela douglas 20 march 2024

I ALMOST LIKED THE OPERETTAS

I ALMOST LIKED THE OPERETTAS 

For Lucy W. Young          

I almost liked  the operettas

Because of going with my Grandmother

Who took her pearl opera glasses

She wore bluegrass perfume

dressed in elegant knock off Chanel.

Later l loved only Puccini

The art song in cameo

The sounds of aeolian bells

What is music I asked the clouds

They drifted to show me

The drift of sound

The harmony of leaving

The beautiful evening reprised.

mary angela douglas 19 march 2024 

A KALEIDOSCOPE STORY

 

A KALEIDOSCOPE STORY

When through the rose screen, the violet

And the green shifting of glass

Through our toy kaleidoscopes

The colours of wonder passed

It seemed to us that life was made

Of peacock colours, shining

And the surpassing

Amethyst turned onto an olive road

While ink blue sifted into lemon groves

And bouquets infinite tipped with rose buds

Made us gasp

It is so beautiful we breathed

Wanting to visit that country forever

And we shook the instruments and

Wondered oh really

Is there Christmas inside

There must be or suddenly blooming angels

Never since then has vision

Been the same

Even in the time of the indigo rains

When life spilled over with its sadness

And very near drowned us

One moment with those shifting panes

Of stained glass correlations

Those crystalline fountainings

Can shake us still

With happy tears

opening the mysterious

The fragile peephole

Into all glory.

mary angela douglas 19 march 2024

THERE ARE TIMES WHEN TRULY IT FEELS

 

THERE ARE TIMES WHEN TRULY IT FEELS

There are times when truly it feels

Like you resurrect us every day

And what the day began in anguish

You finish in joy

To you, o Christ

What can we bring

What offering for this

That in the desert times

You still Spring Forth

Covering the skeletal lands

With fresh unaccountable flowers.

Lifting us up to drink the honeyed waters

Clasping our hands.

mary angela douglas 19 march 2024

TO THE DAYS, THE DEAR DAYS THEY SAID

 

 

TO THE DAYS, THE DEAR DAYS THEY SAID

To the days, the dear days they said then

No longer say, the dear days beyond recall

I direct my wistful scrawl on a curiously

Vintage page and wonder where the sentiment has gone

From modern verse, who banished it or carried it away

And the people bringing posies in a twilight hour

Lingering in the evening with the moon beyond bright

Disclosed then only its silver in poetry no longer read

In ghostly music and refrains

That used to live on earth and do not now resound, remain

In current consciousness, hold sway pearl by pearl

And have we lost that way of being in the world

Directed to friends or sweethearts with kind esteem

Fully at home beneath the oak trees of former reminiscence.

Is there anything left of reminiscence

I ask my soul as twilight unfolds the blossoming night

Still to us so fragile if we still had the way

To apprehend it all, being oh so past that now

O take at any rate this small bouquet of mignonette

You who

for aeons are proud to be instead

Statistical, numerical, somewhat engineered.

And truly though alive on earth, still dead.

mary angela douglas 18 march 2024

TO THE BLUE OF EARLY MORNING THAT FADES TO LAVENDER

 

 

TO THE BLUE OF EARLY MORNING THAT FADES TO LAVENDER

To the blue of early morning that fades to lavender

How often I have seen your blended colours

And tried to write in blue upon the slate of myself

That mystical light, using broken crayons

Even as a child half dreading school

Leaving home again

What lunch shall be packed

Not to feel so exiting

from the warm and snug

fleece of sleep

Why, the same

In a plaid thermos, tomato soup

In a plaid lunchbox a peanut butter and banana sandwich

We shall eat these on another planet

And not feel repaired until the school bus home

Arrives.

mary angela douglas 18 march 2024