Stone Upon Stone And Then, The Rose Windows Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

edicts of kings or councils of clerics

no wonder I looked out the classroom window

and thought of Hans Andersen instead


lining up his tin soldiers for marginal wars

and illusory dead.

stone upon stone and then, the rose windows


and coming home where it is always Christmas

the fir tree highly decorative and not cast out.


or I am looking on a world of glass not doubt

after the ice storms and everything is shining

and the Snow Queen will not last


the puzzle will be solved, the puzzle being Love,

Divine love...the Dove high flown from the Ark the

deep bells rung out from the Dark the necklaces of stars all



candlelit in every colour...fantastical, the babies coo

and clap! in the morning dew, shutters flung open


the posies in the window box will dance

once again the dreamy narrator will soothe:


the hard things were past.


it was summer, it was glorious summer

for all of them, at last.


mary angela douglas 10 november 2018