To Virginia Woolf On The Voyage Out Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the distance between the words is the way you had come

the way you had been led thinking that you had time

that time was a kind of ocean that you were on



and so you floated there or were dashed by waves

or you went under only to emerge once more to the air

in a hidden mermaid music beyond despair and published



and the sunlight no longer filtering



through dark green waters

then you made ripples ripples that disappeared

and other things disappeared too, with you



leaving their imprint on your mind your heart like a spare

consciousness or on ours or on mine

your floating fleeting heart known only to God



the hidden mast who asked oh daughter of the wave

what brought you here



rippling and rippling

out of time at last.

and crowned with the flowering of language.




mary angela douglas 3 february 2020