Remembering The Color Of Snow Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

REMEMBERING THE COLOR OF SNOW

I remember the color of snow in certain paintings

out of the long ago, pearlescent and wistfully I do recall

the roselight falling across the canvas

the hidden light revealed the inner rose and the outer

becoming one distinction as Dante knew

I remember it do you or snow as azure, as gold as mauve

as the fielding of small questions to the sparrow on my

left hand

bad art is the endless revealing of things I reprimand

almost my sparrow laughs

I said to my sparrow, the one on my right hand

balancing in my portrait as inferred I will withstand:

the princess in exile surveying the ruined lands

making ragged suppositions

and suffering through odd dispositions

revealing in song the long exile

the beauty of the colours of snow

falling aslant of all predictability

and lamenting that

no one remembers them now.

mary angela douglas 23 april 2021