Saints And Those Who Knew Them Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

what if they were caught in the thickets of the stars
(the saints and those who knew them)
so that the heart could shine somewhere else

not here where fears arise to be cut down

and then arise again the rank and file displaced
by the rank and file.
and all the bills due at once.

and the 3 a.m.'s rising and setting
setting and rising
gloom on gloom

in a perpetual fog
so that the soul is launched-
it must be-

from another site

where the colours of dreams
flow over the canvas of Night
and there it is Spring

and the fantastic
while down below
what was left of you

mourned
in a continual wake.
thinking mistakenly

that God had departed.

mary angela douglas `15 august 2017