O Crystal Heart Of France (Final Version) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[To Joan of Arc]

o crystal heart of France
the heart is broken
but it cannot shatter
your frayed lily banner in my dreams

still shines with its first snow of the
season's individual light
and I imagine you

freed from all strife in Heaven
standing stock still in
the gentian fields
your bright skirts swirling in
planetary breezes,

newly enchanted by the Fairy Tree-
your father's fleecy sheep just
over the green cloud of a hill
and your mother
gives you fresh baked

bread with butter and honey
remembering all the times you
ran away;

blessing the dual sunrise in your eyes.
yet.

no matter how many times
I've sightread your brief song
I cannot turn that page
so hard and bitter it seems to me:

you crowned a King
but doubting who he was
he let you die

a heart they could not burn. *
in my dream the words were seared:

oh crystal crystal heart of France
the heart is broken
yet will not shatter here
through all the storied past

though kings at times are made of glass-

mary angela douglas 19 october 2009; 30 september 2023

*it is a matter of historical fact reported by the executioner
that they could not reduce the heart of Joan of Arc to ashes even
though several attempts were made with pitch and sulphur after the fact: It was thrown into the river Seine.