FRA ANGELICO IT'S THE ROSE AND THE GOLD

["some works are for the earth, some for heaven."
-Fra Angelico]

Fra Angelico, it's the rose and gold

I want to say
rude shadows chide me,


"don't say" - but I

find words the colors of
your angels' sleeves

and hold in my hand the

quartz of your music that won't fall apart.

whenever I lose the way and chandelier 

branches

in the rain remain unlit

when Light is

mislaid in some other poem.

procure the fairytale brocades you

must have left in a Florentine summer

and never got around to using

for

my impoverished reverence

made rich again-

mary angela douglas 2 august 2010;21 june 2022