Be My Heart, Be My Shield Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

['Iniquitous courts have banished the moonlight'-
Natalya Gorbanevskaya]

be my heart
be my shield
Blessed God, of all I feel
in the overcast moment

whenever I am lost
in this general lack of splendor-
whenever the mists come down

ah we cannot save the stars beneath our feet
they have cast down
they have cast_ down _

when dubious courts condemn
the singing word
be my heart
be my shield
whenever the lack of feeling

is regarded as a
mark of greatness
when the love of gold

but not the golden
predominates

oh my dove


mary angela douglas 17 august 2007; 27 september 2023