Friday, December 22, 2017
Angels Unclothed
Angels Unclothed
"When naked to naked goes..."
Yeats
I look for angels,
and what I find
are kewpie dolls,
cartoon depictions
of infant cherubs,
a child's toy.
Is this what angels are,
small figurines
who reassure and
do nothing to offend?
Images to lure us
into the certainly
that God as we call him
has shrunken down
to less than human size
so as not to frighten
or disturb?
When Zeus came down
to Leda, her thighs opened
to a feathered rush,
and she bore gods
and goddesses.
remembered still.
When Moses asked
to see the deity
he only glimpsed
the backside of God
as He passed by:
"If someone sees my face,
he will not live."
And Semele, who asked
to see Him
in His unclothed form
had her wish granted
as she was burned to ash.
Eliot said, "Humankind can bear
only a little reality,"
and so we wonder
how much transcendence
can we withstand
before we are blinded
with the light
of the Ultimate,
the final inescapable
Truth?
And yet we long to see,
to be enfolded in glory,
and some say that It also
is seeking us.
Dorothy Walters
December 21, 2017
