Similitude Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[after Pavlova]

swan on the similar waters
I have seen you shine
when snows vault through

the heavens
as if they were made of stars
drifting, drifting

to where you are;
to where you are drifting
and where you remain

in my heart past time's measured climb
as though in crystal
you were divined within my name

and to my soul's own rectitude had claim.
also, also o swan so
similar how she was always

drifting away and towards you
simultaneously all all her life;
this unquenchable refrain...

mary angela douglas 2 february 2016