Music In Heaven Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

is this what music is like in Heaven was asked
in a dream where we telegraphed things
with no Telegraph

who can explain a language where
thoughts through the air spun like crystal
intent understood not vocalized the Pearl of

music and weeping mingled
the weeping magnified
Beethoven presiding

still alive it's quieter than a pin

in the world we guard within
we said on earth we shadow said

nothing could match the stillness there

elaborations of the heart, Chopin
gazing out on the vast blue rains, the infinite refrains


is it art lost cities muse, the Muse apart

to each one listening imparts Faure, Debussy
the melting of clouds into cities, Satie
and Mercy. and Pity and Arvo Part, perhaps

starpoint by starpoint, merry go round,
the children's voices like bells, carillions of the Sun
the ladders from the ground and Time is overcome

and Ives is Ives

this is music in heaven no metronome
only the soaring, wind through the pines
evenings, no more

the jay startled, the sifting of swans

say only begin and not become
to begin like snow, and never to end.
who would return from that country, again

mary angela douglas 18 december 2018; rev.18 january 2019