This Christening Hour Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

this christening hour so watercoloured there
I kept through many years
and single hearted prayer

Lord, that the beauteous may not vanish.
and they have rocketed away,
have pocketed the gold

that I remember from the old books, loveliest, first
and how their gleams in realistic detail
were to me then as lines from Heaven

I could never banish but find redress
of even grownup woes in their borderlands
within the shadows of imaginary snows

of tempests palest green of sights not seen
except in dreams if there
and illustrated, rare beyond the commonplace

cherished and given to me so long ago oh stories, stories
to flourish now despite all men can know
of facts, mere facts to the contrary.

mary angela douglas 24 march 2016