OSIP MANDELSTAM

OSIP MANDELSTAM

he sewed Dante
into his breast pocket
perhaps

and carried a bucketful

of stars
and clouds made way for
him but the others did
not

in the last days of

a held-over doom-
leaving behind
an inconsolable future
and

as many scanless notebooks;

or were they also
taken into custody?
rustling a coded matchless snow:


oh worldwide language distressed-
the more-than-widowed questions-

on the way to
who knows what
I hope

snow-blindness

saved him
from complete collapse
and that he entered
Heaven like a bridal
page on which

only light could be written

surely there was
a point of endless rescue,
of a thousand angels whirling
when he heard:

the diamond waves crashing
on a finer shore,
and felt on his back
the black sun, infinitely

illuminated.

may children stitch together,
barely understanding orders:

new notebooks from

the periphery of that rose


mary angela douglas 19 september 2005/2 december 2005