LILLIAN GISH IN A STARRY CROWN

 

LILLIAN GISH IN A STARRY CROWN

for her epiphanous role in the film Night of the Hunter, for her impeccable role in American film, for her loyalty to D.W. Griffith and her love of her sister, Dorothy.

Lillian Gish in a starry crown

Told the children to turn around

To turn around lest they be found

By the shadow of evil stalking the ground

And she will keep vigil all night if she must

To save their gold from turning to rust

To stay the slaughter of innocents there

By hiding them up her rickety stairs

And all I can cry is oh keep her there

The stalwart angel with fragile might

Crossing the borders and facing the wind

And flinging her soul out again and again

In her own being; almost drowning on floes

To get the best shot the most serious pose

Lillian gish in the hour of fire

Keeping the lambs from the devil’s desire

Holding the fort in a dubious hour

Wedded to film only she could say

In the way that she said it in Charles Laughtons day

Children endure and they abide

In a voice like a small sea at high tide

Lillian Gish in a robe of stars

I wonder who you truly are

And make this small poem of stars for you

So disingenuous and so pure

to all such ways of the world inured

On the front porch guarding the lambs that endure.

mary angela douglas 25 may 2024