Let The Waters Go Down Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

let the waters go down
the beautiful waters
the fountaining fountains

the healing waters return
the trees uprooted reverse
their green in the greening sun

that we may pour distress
no longer from the silver pitcher
into the golden

the golden into the silver
let the waters be blessed
as they go down

into the ground
or vanished into the air
with all our cares

let the rivers be swollen no more
your rainbows hidden from us
your rainbows drowning headfirst into

the sea
let the seas recede
and with them our fears

the diminishing years
the nations of our scorned
the scorning thorn


grown up among us
as if it were a brother
the spoiling foxes

among the purple vines
in time, before time
before the chime of our last heart


is chimed in the sullen land
let the waters recede
at your command oh Lord of


the heedless waters
of the floods of our tears
and the thieving, thieving years.

the grieving of statues
who were men
turned to stone.

no more
and the loved shores again
returned

yearned for in the little dreams of children.


mary angela douglas 18 september 2018