Play Something On The Violin For Rilke (Revised) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

Rilkean birds flew out of my heart

startled by the nearness of the skies.

cloud music I have loved you

with an unseen love

imagining the winds at Duino


and the first gold fissure of

angels floating nigh

the pale green parapets in

dangerous weather, the

Poet almost blown overboard…


who can forget to love, to sigh for

the poet born

to be wounded by rose thorns

business letters and the unrecorded-

covert sniping glances on


the endless evening avenues where you walked-

lost in dream, as in your thought

and always leaving before asked to.


any vicinity on earth.


the leaves whirl up as high as the sunset

left in your wake by God

though you're no longer here to gather them


or love


to take from them the essence of the Tree

the essence of leaves, of stars

as they fly, the essence of saying goodbye


so that


children gazing from new windows-

unused to the battlements of high Song-

suddenly-began to dream…

began to notice the teacups rattling on their own-

and the far distances…


as though they were meant to be

strange neighbors

in the same music,


Shining-


mary angela douglas 27-28 february 2012; rev.2 june 2022