Can A Word Be Mapped (Reposted) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

['can a word be mapped'
-Dr. Maureen O'Neill, from her website 'map passion']

testing the acoustics in my last cathedral
I folded up the petal of a song
into my best pocket

like a map only clouds configure-
not to scale
I wander and
I wonder why
the sun is leaking light and
I'm afraid-

already the wounded images are
in hiding and 'nowhere' is written
large across the sky
though not in script of gold

can a word be mapped?
or will it fly like a color wheel
falling off a sunset sky
or like a ghost ship sailing
on no water

it's the marbled music I
can't find anymore
no matter how I try
since moving from an old neighborhood

though I
cast my Mercator net
so wide so wide
from the mark
that distance cannot measure

can a word be mapped
or must we live
blind and deaf to music
in the end

wondering where the poets went?
ceding their diamond letters
one by one-

mary angela douglas 29 july 2010