Reading Dante changes everything:
the vision is the fact
and the vision an eternal spring
an angel-muse makes exact
of innocence, at journey’s end
given back; one looks up into night,
one remembers what is beyond:
the empyrean, its great rose pane
(each facet like a sun is a soul
alive with holy love, alight;
bright angels racing through the whole
of it, singing, numerous as rain).
Published in the February 2020 issue: View Contents