NOT ALL FRAGILE THINGS WILL BREAK

 

NOT ALL FRAGILE THINGS WILL BREAK

Not all fragile things will break

Some of them will shatter

As when the note is pitched at a sympathetic resonance

With the crystal

Hard for the lyric poets to sustain the note

With all that shattering

Aftercomers will not understand

Nor next door neighbors at the time

Great art is achieved at times

By an inward shattering

The dove into heightened language flees

Emerging with a bloodied wing.

Causing the poet to sing and to sing

The small birds to blossom into stars.

mangela douglas 10 april 2024