ANGELS EVERYWHERE

by Luci Shaw

Some days I notice angels everywhere,

light glancing through windows, flying

through the glass as if through air.

A human ear shaped like a wing,

curiously curving to admit the flare

of sound, hints to me of angels listening

to my listening, even as I sing.

And that vagrant cloud, glistening?

Often in the blue heaven a trail

of light from a plane to me appears

as a heavenly body playing there

beyond my reach. Or, the tail-

light of a truck sending a red spark

like some winking being in the dark

trailing her glory robe in sight

of stationary sightseers. Daylight,

and over the marshy grass a winged flight

another seraphic view—

Gabriel, Raphael, or a Great Blue?

Most often, nightly, through the skylight,

stars multiply like silver sand and, near to far,

I link my self again, each night

to one bright, angelic, particular star.


Luci Shaw is a poet and essayist, and since 1986 she has been Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver. Author of over thirty-seven books of poetry and creative non-fiction, her writing has appeared in numerous literary and religious journals and in 2013 she received the 10th annual Denise Levertov Award for Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University. Her new collection, The Generosity, will be released in August, 2020, by Paraclete Press.