That Light That Finds Us In Other Realms Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

I have loved the white ballets

the Romantic Age

the edge of snow ethereally staged

the last Ideals

held in the mind

hardest to know

assuming the swans

the distance the space

time made of diamonds

and infinite grace

the white ballets

and the lilies consigned

at each performance

to the Divine

that light that finds us

in other realms

the leap into silence

from glittering spells

the white ballets

the tragedienne's stories

mirage and mirage

of a clouded glory

the white ballets

I have understood

misplaced in an age

that bodes no good

for having abandoned

pale Beauty this way

for clocking the mystery

and making it pay

somewhere I may find them

like queens of the May

enacting the past

with no place to stay

where else could they wander

white flowers and all

than in the commencements

when I was too small.

mary angela douglas 5 march 2023