Mary Angela Douglas Poems

[to God My Father from a dubious kingdom]


I carried Your universe in my mind
...

fairytale capitals guard the chapters
and from them fall pink blossoms scattered
applewhite in natural light or some other
...

to my one quarter Cherokee beloved adopted Grandfather, Milton Barkus Young, (and legal Guardian) , the only grandfather I ever knew...

(who, with my grandmother Lucy Young, raised me)
...

to Eleanor Farjeon

will they never know the Looking Glass world-
the one that fell apart in your hands all crystal snow,
...

again, to Van Cliburn (on debussy's sunken cathedral-)

searching for songs between the keys
I dreamed you were alive
...

to Rupert Brooke

this is not a consolation prize,
she said silverly,
...

there will be a snowfall of poems,
a shower of gold;
you won't return home, empty-handed.
...

it's not the illuminations over the palace-
not the moment's hesitation on the
stairs-
...

take my last sapphire wish to use on
your best day.
I wished to be the light around your face
that cannot set-
...

this prismatic day
is spending all its colors in the sky
soon the stars will begin to rise
...