Poems November 2004

Though angelless

I once glanced up at a tree and found it full of angels singing praises to God.
Blake

If Im to take this visionary quote
As something of a challenge (not a bad
Way of taking everything he wrote)
It isnt one Id be exactly glad
To tackle. Angels thronged those wild eyes!
The realist in me would settle for
The gleam (to name a consolation prize)
Which Wordsworth was at pains to say he saw
In nature (as a kid at least), but this,
If it ever lent its lucence to my view,
Has been long since retired to the shelf.
Which doesnt mean a tree, though angelless,
Wont move me now and then to loose a few
Notes of praise from the old throat myself.

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Dan Brown’s Subjects in Poetry is forthcoming this November from lsu Press.

Topics: Poetry

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Though angelless by Dan Brown

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Though angelless by Dan Brown

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