Mandelstam's Heaven Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

for Osip Mandelstam

your sleep interrupted by the noise of stars
perhaps the scent of pine tar on the winds
of once, home, then turned

into the dragon's lair.
have you forgotten
does the air you're breathing now

emit Heaven's smell of snow,
the whirling ecstacies,
childhood relived?

and an angelic path softly trod.

transposing into another key
the griefs that fell away
you'd still be writing

things we'd long to say
in another language
far from strife

of dreaming then;
you're unaware
the day you entered There.

I hope, too long ago
to remember:

How.

mary angela douglas 30 august 2017