RAIN AFFECTS INCIDENT LIGHT

in light that streams paradisical
through trees rustling in old movies, films-
there must be so many

soughing angels

or why does the light caught forever
in these branches-

especially in black and white-

reel in my heart
with holy shadows cast
in strange familiar distances

I seem to know, to have known

a priori

cinema. cinematique
quarto shadowed suddenly
to me it seems your

dreams are woven in dreams are

woven but the silvered loop
slips from your hands and
childhood hoops spin backwards into night.

say you're sorry to the brothers Lumiere
if not to God my pearly fountainhead

it's Yours.

but the guardians of these images sleep.
the moon drops from its murky frame.

expatriate angels
sought no more
sit in the pouring rain and cry-

for what seemed present

that is now reclaimed

when FINIS flashes on the screen

mary angela douglas 17 june 2010;21 june 2022


[*incident light is a film term refering to light that shines directly on objects rather than

reflected light. I am trying to say - in the arts - if you lose the light that comes from God you lose everything, because only with that is an extra dimension woven into what you do that you could never produce on your own]

*brother Lumiere, very poetic film pioneers in France experimenting in color in the early 1900s.