A Possible Explanation Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

for Rainer Maria Rilke

in childhood legend he swallowed an orchard of birds

and was not the same afterwards. this was in dream.

restless, about to fly at any sudden motion

uncomfortable here among us

in the parlours with imperious horsehair sofas and the

rattling teacups

but at night o night

with its crystal pinholes

the orchard awoke inside

the birds all trable and transmitting

from soul to soul an unaccountable music

he accounted for

far into the nebulae streaming

and everywhere word

was a bird impearled

and weeping how far and distant

gleams the inner world

you cannot find.

mary angela douglas 10 june 2023