Face To Face With Reality As They Say Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

face to face with Reality, as they say
I saw each leaf by God outlined with fire one day
my heart's desire in every wind conveyed

I saw. though I was not seen.
what did I care. I was living like the green world
and in the forest of words

I heard resplendent singing in the silences
in the gaps where beauty perishing remained
behind the fortress walls where I had learned to say

each word like a honeyed clock is ticking
the more I am away;
away from home, forever turning back

forever missing the bus
my train on some irrevocable track
knee deep in homework, far from the flowery fields

I yield to circumstance
I do not yield my crown
indivisible it seems when

I know it's richness to be here
and through the louring clouds to catch
the gleams of the Brighter World

the lapse in suffering
where the diamond light sweeps through.
the towers that I knew.

mary angela douglas 27 october 2018; rev.2 february 2019