Far Off I Heard An Elfin Music Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

far off I heard an elfin music

a teletype of snails the stitching of sea shells
far off I heard the bird called Forever,
falling from its perch and then or

as if the drowned cathedral emerged from the lake
the bells slowly mending and clearer now
and this is coming back to life somehow

the ghost leaves murmured and the
winds from their caves of blue diamonds.
i wrote with red pencil stubs on tablets of clay

reed drawn the living waters
and skated over time, over a crust of ice
falling into the wave

it was cold like the night of shipwreck,
unremitting as stars
and the bell tolled and I translated it

oh I tried

are there any survivors I cried?
but that was when
old continents drifted apart

what is art I was asked
how could I answer bound to my task
as Ulysses to the mast

as Penelope at home weaving and leaving it out
of the letters never to be finished
it may be love to listen this way

and night and day to write it down

I tied the nosegays of the bridesmaid Past
and said oh God this once may it last,
the fleeting sparkles on the ballroom floor

the organza and the starry conservatory word
spoken under moonlight never returning
war widowed, weary, yearning

the shadow tracing went on and
silver falling on an unwritten page,
the ink of tears

aren't you a regional poet they sneered:
if eternity is A on the map, and after that
or a scrap of

paper flown out the window

the dust of years like sifted gold.
perhaps, this glistened.
I only listened.

mary angela douglas 20 november 2017