Angels: a dossier
1. Apparitions
At dawn, a figure loomsfrom horizon to zenith,a heaven-lit shadowabove burning coals;
a gyre of wings, faces,blindingly bright,rings the meridian sun:a golden whirlwind;
high over the cliffsa bird-like formhangs on a thermal,outlined by will-o'-the-wisp light;
inside eerie brilliancesof cloud and lightning,for a split seconda flame-shaped presence.
2. Visitations
Embodied, they come amongst us,feet almost touching earth,the hems of their robestwitching for take-off,
their rapt, attentive facesnot quite humannever less than perfect.
Messengers who cannot be killed —they bring omens, good news;with monastic calm announce
the seeding, saving moment:__________the depth of the Divine__________illumining a fertile soul.
In bare-floored studios —dust motes drifting through ladders of light —they lend their eyes to artists, poets,
guide laden brush or nib towardsincandescence,
ensure each rhythmic row of feathersglows coral red, maize-yellow,ocean blue;
damascene haloes, wing-tips,so they'll shimmer in candlelight.
3. Guardian Angels
__________a benign shadowing__________a prophetic vigilance__________a timeless listening__________an enfolding otherness...
So palpably invisibleyou know they must be there:
beings of light__________who spark the soul's intelligence,__________summon leaps of faith,__________sow patience.
They do not need to breathebut sometimes do,in sympathy.
They have no cause to feelbut often do: standing closethey allow tides of griefto pass through them;
act as bulwarks againstgale-force passions,the virus of wanting everything.
__________On a dawn cliff-top, they hover__________in the half-smile shared by strangers__________as a vast wing of sea-light__________spreads over feathery darkness.
4. Shoulder Angels
The one on the left, wearingcrimson tights, promises the world,probes with his pitchfork for hidden desires,sports a prehensile tailable to wrap around your mind.
Aureoled by electrum,his counterpart, in snowy alb,meditates on your right shoulder,sending into your soul's bloodstreama thirst for peace,__________for the balm of its completeness —
__________an airy nudge:_______________eternity now_______________eternity now
5. Icons
__1Tobias and the Angel, Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio
Verrocchio gives us an older brother,buoyantly strong, who walks witha dancer's step beside Tobias.
Raphael — soon to reel inthe story's next silvery twist;reveal the healing secret —shares the glory of his wings'palette with his charge
whose amaranth-hosed legsin umber boots, plant himso convincingly on earth;whose black and lapis lazuli cloaklifts, swirls, would fly.
__2Jacob's Dream, Rembrandt van Rijn
Jacob sleeps beneath a canopy of care:the half-sketched watcherholds out his hand, palm-down —instilling the dreamwith a look of such grave compassionas to make the angelic seeman enhanced humanness.
__3The Annunciation, Jan Van Eyck
Arrrayed in an archbishop'straceried gold cope —deep-slitted at the backso tinctured wings can slip through —Gabriel waits on Mary's wordswith the graced stillness of oneable to move between spheresas effortlessly as a singer's voicetravels from one window to anotheracross a summer courtyard.
6. Praise
On this planetwhere