Advice For The Dedicated Reader Much Maligned Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

was it you that heard the clarion, silver
opening certain books and received
disparaging looks on account of it?

throw-away comments by the score.
who cares what is said when you
are in the kingdom of reading

what you please and see yourself
among the crenellated towers
or wondrously at sea, adrift in

What Could Be...

forget the cranks, those who cry 'misfit! '
surreptitiously or in the public square
and act as though you're totally unaware

of it or of a wider world.
they think you are, anyway!
just play among the immortals.

mary angela douglas 16 june 2016