You Should Have Been Painted In A Lilac Mist (To Anna Akhmatova) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

Mary Angela Douglas

Mary Angela Douglas

Little Rock, Arkansas United States of America

You Should Have Been Painted In A Lilac Mist (To Anna Akhmatova)



you should have been painted in a lilac mist
looking out to sea yet-
holding the sea within.

you would have stood apart
by an open window, breathing-
immemorial-
the scent of pine trees where
another poet walked-

hearing the sound of the sea
holding the sea within,
its dove-grey caesuras
meted out so carefully

like the steps to the fairytale
castle and the end of the story;
your raspberry syllables spilling over

where there could be no decrees;
with your friend who loved Africa
and drew giraffes on your school
slate, possibly, who hated raspberry

jam even then;

with your small son playing
learning to walk in the
pine-needled shade;

with your other friend, who loved life
and pure delight, praising its syllables
of true delight and small feasts managed

in distress: a tin of sardines, Armenian grapes,
a miracle;
banished like a real prince:
by his side, his starling wife
hid all his poems in crummy saucepans -

and in her heart ever after

o darkened wing - o muse
o hidden stars half-turning into fire,
Cassandra, who is listening

like snow it all disappeared
shining into a farther sea
inside you
after nothing like a Golden Age
no one in any language

can explain.

I sit at my kitchen table in America
as white as you were at the
height of Terror,
Anna Akhmatova, getting paler by
the minute, in public housing
with other golden refugees of a
free nation

the kitchen radio proclaims:
'A Great Nation deserves Great Art'
I think sometimes

great art deserves a great nation;
I'm

selling my books off, one-by-one, to live;
when I get to the last book I'll go
live under a pine tree and make
books out of pine bark

but this morning
you shine on my momentary wall
the color of buttermilk
looking for Russia, still-

looking for an open window
for the sound of the sea
for an undeniable clarity
that can't be bought or sold...

Anna Akhmatova.

ask God for me
if you don't know yourself,
is it anywhere in the world

or only in
the next poem

that we live-

mary angela douglas 18 july 2009

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Ian Bowen 06 August 2009

Mary, about as good as it gets.10/10 Ian

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tom mc quade 01 August 2009

this poem (and its poet) deserves so much more than any pale commentary and superlatives i can bring to them..i choose to simply silently nod and tip my glass in the direction of of Mary Douglas..recognizing a gifted poet...well done Mary :) tom

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Mary Angela Douglas

Mary Angela Douglas

Little Rock, Arkansas United States of America
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