And Raise Thy Banner From The Dust Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

to William Shakespeare and all the others..., to Poetry itself in all its finest hours

keep watch on the waters under the bridge
lest floodtide reach again that ridge
lest floodtide breach what cant be mended
and the world be resuspended
losing human speech, nobility impeached,
human speech and poetry Grand
I'll never never understand
why men have bartered gold for rot
and pearls of beauty long forgot and exiled.
forgot and smashed them, the sublime
into the former realms of time
and locked them in.
bewildered now we stand and see
backwaters of a robbery
that world has fallen, all the just
their musical phrases meager crusts
that should have been immune to rust
when sounded by the merciful
immune and radiant more and more
nor cast upon the bleakest shore
because they would not serve utility.
restore restore the angels cry
the hymn to singing
what cannot die
and beauteous phases of the moon
in every language now resume
that soul may sing
and joy clap hands
above the weeping- sorrowlands.
and poetry renewed may be
in every greening long lost tree
then from a golden Strand renew
our banished dreams and in revue
all lost kingdoms of the heart
blaze forth and shine out
rescued Art
lost purity return to us
and raise thy banner from the dust.

mary angela douglas 13 june 2023