Small Fugue On A Phrase From The National Geographic Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

"the dreamlike fungi" the caption read in the National Geographic

snow has fallen on the asphodel mused Conrad Aiken and I find

in the swell of enchanted words no difference in the article

from a certain slant in the poem on asphodel

a quaint light a yearning toward the nightshade phrase

poetry has not disappeared from the world, not as I thought

but in the unexpected, flares out in the common day to the uncommon

reader

there is hope in the pick up sticks of words strewn upon the nursery

floor

in the patterns we thought accidental while the angels smiled mise en

scene

tuning their synchronicity

as I remember them unsought phrases will emerge from unexpected

spaces

as the silver moon from clouds with the stamp of fancy renewed the

mind of Keats,

the wings of Shelley

and light from old cathedrals burns as we turn the tin kaleidoscopes

the dreaming page again

where moss bright kingdoms shine not for one instant only

and let us know, there is no time but the May blossoms shining under

the moon

the child in the dew struck grasses, examining.

these facts that anywhere, unaccountably bloom...

mary angela douglas 19 november 2020