These Things Come To Light After Many Winters Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

these things come to light after many winters
Orpheus, looking back in perpetual gloom
Persephone and the strangest blue flower
sealing a certain period of doom.
long lost images, pearls of the shell of wonder
restored again as lightning to the thunder
the swell of waves, the immemorial phrases.
life had quite overswept us then
so that we missed the things recited at home
the jewel in the rain filled day found on our own
when reading silently and not in the general class.
how much would come to pass before we could go back.
new students now at eternity's gate
trying to recall what made us late.
and stragglers.
turning to hear extraordinary music
remembering the sword plucked
from the stone.

mary angela douglas 20 march 2023