How Is It You Have Lined All Things With Light Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

how is it You have lined everything with light Lord God

so that no matter what befalls us there is still a way home

as if you foresaw every impossible known emergency happening to us

providing the needle and thread, the silver thimble too.

and every war long in advance of its breaking out



all upheavals you have rendered useless by your Glory

by your hidden streams. your indirection.

so that even in our weeping

a provisionary sorrow gleams and



there is something glistening

so that even in your shadow, even if we should vanish from the earth

there is a plum darkness



where a lone bird sings.



mary angela douglas 15 october 2020