Saints On A Path That Blazing Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

there is no courtly love except in Heaven

or in books emblazoned with heraldries of the Rose

no Grail that now is not forbidden

no knights who bleed on holy ground alone

and yet



somewhere the realm exists

if we could unearth it

siglo de oro, ladder of sweet ascent

unto the ruined and shadowy choked off towers

long ago running out of rent



my horse caparisoned in emeralds

my home by the sky dreamed ebbing tides

I wait and I watch and listen

for Christ is riding by



saints on a path that blazing

could not abandon us here

we are surrounded forever

by those who raged at fear.

mary angela douglas 3 february 2023