Poetry As I Believe It To Be Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

in previous scenes the lark sang all night long

the moon imbued the apple trees

with a strange silvering of the leaves



and gazing from the gabled windows

I and my compatriots believed



believed in poetry that it was all around us within us

God given like the night quenching dew

or the violets edging



the woods behind our school

where we played we could rule

over the beautiful even then.



what has it come to now?

a few slogans about dystopia?

somewhere the same old kingdoms



await us as if we were in our memories turned to be

ourselves rhe coming of Arthur

the swelling of the tide



that bears the sailors home.



mary angela douglas 14 march 2020