Daniel Thomas
Daniel Thomas’s poetry book, River of Light, is forthcoming from Shanti Arts. His previous book, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn, was published by Cherry Groves Collections in 2022. His first collection, Deep Pockets, was published by St. Julian Press in 2018. He has published poems in many journals, including Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Poetry Ireland Review, Amethyst Review, Vita Poetica, Atlanta Review, and others. More info at danielthomaspoetry.com
VISIONS OF ANGELS
Consider that our sun is just one of perhaps 100 billion or more stars in our galactic
home, and that our galaxy is just one of potentially 200 billion in the observable universe
alone. — BBC Sky at Night, March 18, 2024
Angels once filled our imaginations. They crammed
the nooks and corners of soaring El Grecos, shoulder
to shoulder with elongated bodies and Expressionist faces.
And Rembrandt found one—a beautiful woman-like
creature—whispering in St. Matthew’s ear,
as he stared off, pen in hand.
Rodin carved a naked angel with huge
stone wings that fills the dreams of a naked,
sleeping woman. Like St. Matthew, she does not know
the angel’s nearness, though its wrapped wings
collapse the space around her—and maybe this
the very angel that terrified young Rilke.
Where are they now, these angels? Are they
hidden in the day, numberless as the stars
above us? Do they feather the baroque depths
of time and space, fill the empty flowering mysteries,
spread their wings through galaxies that whirl
in logarithmic spirals like vacant mollusk shells?
Though they are all presence and no substance,
do they mingle among us, envy our sensuous
mortality? Have we entertained them unaware?
Or are they like a stirring wind, a rushing sound
that turns the world to silence, a whisper
in your ear, your shoulder plumed with certainty?
