I Found The Word God Languishing Under Its Own Palm Tree (Final Version) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

I found the word 'God' languishing under its own palm tree
what have you done with my starry Hands it wept
while I slept dreamless.
I found the word 'God' fugitive in the mirrors of the world
of you and I when all fairy tales crept by strangely evicted
still something of Him existed
even perfecting the tiny streams,
snow melt in the early Springs
by my lost violets in the diary of the great befores.
it kept calling after me in triolets
of ravishing bird song and it was on
the diamond wind prolonged near enough to Song
for the poets who refused to let it back in
see, it said, shyly
I have taken my heart and cut it into all the rose pieces
and left them in the sky only for you
I have spent every coin of light
the treasury of the snows
and everything that grows
please may you only
mention My Name in one or two refrains
or think of me again as you would of clouds,
in reverie
or as a somewhat melancholy friend, archaically
wounded for Beauty.
take me out of the root cellar
and plant me in your desolate language!
my errant lambs.I am that I am.

mary angela douglas 16 february 2022; 19 march 2023