Mary Angela Douglas Poems

who will they put in charge of vanishing?
she said aloud looking out through grandmother's
mother of pearl opera glasses
...

let's have a party! the cardboard invitation read,
so highly coloured, with its five balloons
in primary colours, and two secondary.
...

to Miguel Cervantes, forever

crying out on the slow blade's curve
could no one hear him but the jeweled clouds?
...

jumbled sewing basket, green and white wicker:
of reading! coloured threads and gilded, too;
strange bits of tulle, and on the underside,
...

another poem to Valerie, driven out of office but not
out of Poetry*

in just one week they said that you were dead;
...

pie keepers.
cake savers.
oh who will bless the poetry makers
...

Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
...

it is a box of clouds I have opened!
cried Pandora, suddenly grieved who
looked for festive colors, perhaps a something
to wear, threaded with fine gold
...

to the poets afflicted in the Word

cut to the quick of the living Word
we strive and crave the waters
...

again, to Van Cliburn

we anchor in mist and dream we sail
but in our hearts no winds prevail.
...