Skip to main content

Angels


Featured this morning in our church bulletin, a recent Advent poem of mine. Though the version for the service had one line adjustment for the sake of its context; this is the original.

More often than not they arrived on foot, 
like travelers come a long distance.
Think of the three at which Sarah laughed.
Think of the one standing in Balaam’s path.

The shepherds, aghast at the one,
then suddenly surrounded face to face with a host, 
looked angels in the eyes. Scattered among the sheep—
not suspended—stalking toward them purposefully 
with peace to those on whom.

The shepherds were not the first.
All of Israel followed the angel to Canaan,
and it was the angels who brought fire to Sodom.
An angel alone led the ram to Abraham.
And we haven’t yet mentioned the cherubim,
divine dragons, guardians of the throne, strange beasts.
This is the company the angels keep.

The messengers say do not be afraid,
and often lift men from prostrate praise.
More often than harps they hold swords in hand,
and sometimes the Lord of all looks the part.
Jacob wrestled the angel, but he wrestled his God.
And the rod of justice, and the feet of bronze,
sometimes the angel is the Son of God.

Where the image of infants with tiny wings?
What the prayers for guardians of easy things?
If an angel appears, something’s worthy of fear.
You’re called to change, to move. Your heart is laid bare.

Zechariah in the temple faced the angel and said,
“I am old; I need proof.” And he was struck mute.
When Mary faced the angel with his promise of favor,
she said, “I am young; how can this be done?”

So the angel, regardless of wings, robe, harp strings, halo, 
heard much the same from each, but knew the hearts.
In her was born the King of all kings.

Comments

  1. I enjoy this again as I am allowed to read through it slowly. Thank you for posting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay divine dragons! Sweet poem, friend! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can someone please explain why my Quicktime isn't working? Anyone with prophetic awareness of my little Atlas, none so old but recently behaving so?
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
I just finished Shiver , by Maggie Stiefvater, the other day. From the first few chapters, I had every reason to expect this book to rival the other dark-teen-romance novels recently released (you know which ones I mean). And in a way, it did. There was nothing obnoxious about this book. The characters were mostly believable and endearing. The story was subtle and simple. Maybe a little too simple. At times, maybe a little too subtle. The best chapters were the ones from Sam's point of view, when he's a wolf. That doesn't take up a whole lot of the story, unfortunately. I mean, it would seriously hamper the progression of the plot if he was a wolf for much more of the time, but the writing was still at its best then. Perhaps because it seemed that the poetic, lyrical passages were justified. I like Rilke just fine, and I know plenty of people who compose song lyrics in their heads, but Sam as a human was just maybe a little too emo for me. It could just be that I'm almo...