Poem: The View of the Angel

[tugger]

THE VIEW OF THE ANGEL


Hunched among the stars
He’d hear the music
Of the two souls
Who romped and played
Similar as twins
Around the boundless cosmos.
Often he squatted even higher
Because the love of the two souls
Lifted each other.
And if they touched,
Tiny explosions would sparkle
Through the darkness.
Being souls, they were
Neither he nor she, but both
Innocent successes of the Creator.
The angel thought maybe
They would be cast as ponies
Running free in sunny fields
Or tossed into the sea
As dolphins twirling.
And the fear of their fate
Excited him.

But he saw them sent
Years and miles apart.
Falling like feathers
Into faces and form,
Growing into the children
That humans are,
Yet searching always
For something missing.
They did not know
The brevity of these lives,
Or see the shortness of their separation.
Only the dimness of the next day,
The order of hours out of focus.
He watched their arms
Fall lifelessly around lovers
Who failed to fill their hollow hearts
Or give them home.
And their sadness touched the angel.
He missed their frolic.
Missed their harmony, their warmth.
He missed their sweetness and passion.
So he would make the necessary accidents happen,
He decided, and jumped.

Today a man beholds his mate.
He has left his life
For a moment he cannot hold.
He asserts his heart with haiku.
He touches her face
And tastes her tongue.
He swims deep in her ocean eyes
And sees there her timeless love
And her playful soul.
He sees there the boundless universe
And an angel
Hunched, smiling
With no regret.

--tugger

 

[third man girl]

I enjoyed reading this one (several times ) but I couldn't relate to it like some of your others. I think I have a problem with angels.

The line, 'He decided, and jumped.' worries me, but I'm scared to ask

btw, what does Shantih Shantih Shantih mean

Third Man Girl

 

[tugger]

TMG: Shantih Shantih Shantih is the last line of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. There is no comparable word in English. The closest definition would be "the peace that passes all understanding."

I'm curious why you have a problem with angels. Care to share?

I'm sorry the line about the angel deciding and jumping worries you. Perhaps I need to make it clearer in the poem. I want it to convey that if the angel, who so loved the two souls, decides to "make the necessary accidents happen" to bring the two souls together on earth, he sacrifices his "angelship" by interfering in human events. The irony being that he becomes a fallen angel in the name of LOVE. That's the idea of the poem. Putting that clearly into the words of the poem was definitely the hardest button to button.

 

[third man girl]

I'm curious why you have a problem with angels. Care to share?

I see them as being too perfect. I would be drawn to the one with the broken wingtip, or the one with the mischievous glint in its eye. Or what about a group of them stomping on their harps? Or using their harp-strings as trip wires?

Oh dear. Angels . . .

the hardest button to button.

Third Man Girl

 

[Ashlea]

I would be drawn to the one with the broken wingtip, or the one with the mischievous glint in its eye.

Everything you say reminds me of poems lately. This comment reminded my of Robert Herrick's

Delight in Disorder.

 

[third man girl]

This comment reminded my of Robert Herrick's

"Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part. "

Ashlea. That is brilliant. Love it.

Afterthought: When are you going to stop reading, and show us your writing?


Third Man Girl

 

[tugger]

I see them as being too perfect. I would be drawn to the one with the broken wingtip, or the one with the mischievous glint in its eye. Or what about a group of them stomping on their harps? Or using their harp-strings as trip wires?

Then the angel in the poem should be just your type. Since he was willing to break the rules without regret.

Ashlea: Thank you for the Herrick reference. Tasty. I was unfamiliar.
Don't mess with Texas! And I second TMG's request. Please don't be shy about sharing.

 

[Ashlea]

I shall endeavor to spend some of my free time this weekend coming up with something new, then. Everything I have is very stale.

 

[piedro]

nice poem. i can say that there is a lot of difference between this one and all your other ones , both in the type of subject and the execution. so you seem to be versatile

and as for:

Shantih Shantih Shantih is the last line of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. There is no comparable word in English. The closest definition would be "the peace that passes all understanding."

shanti (or shantih as you may say) is a hindi (indian) word which literally means peace