When Poetry Becomes Propaganda And No One Notices Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

to the immortal Poets, to Immortal Poetry
when poetry becomes propaganda
by the time that has taken root all over the world
I would have finished you would have finished
they would have finished their waxen wings
and flown into the sun
rather than to hear one more lie disguised
in your phoenix fleece and weeping
ah poetry fallen archangel, wounded bird
in the mire of gold I found you and I
cared and lifted you above
and remembered your former skies
your cathedral heights soaring into God
the one they no longer name.
am I unwise even to write this here
that I remember when you were
clear sapphire through and through
and I could see the skies
the tops of tress fomenting only green.
why have they taken your name and
rammed it into a perverse flag and turned you into
a nagging day in and out
while beauty has fled into the wilderness without you
where there are no more flowers.
mary angela douglas 23 september 2017