Questions About Angels on a Saturday in CinCity

Questions About Angels

by Billy Collins


Of all the questions you might want to ask
about angels, the only one you ever hear
is how many can dance on the head of a pin.


No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time
besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin
or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth
or guiding a boy and girl across a rickety wooden bridge.


Do they fly through God's body and come out singing?
Do they swing like children from the hinges
of the spirit world saying their names backwards and forwards?
Do they sit alone in little gardens changing colors?


What about their sleeping habits, the fabric of their robes,
their diet of unfiltered divine light?
What goes on inside their luminous heads? Is there a wall
these tall presences can look over and see hell?


If an angel fell off a cloud, would he leave a hole
in a river and would the hole float along endlessly
filled with the silent letters of every angelic word?


If an angel delivered the mail, would he arrive
in a blinding rush of wings or would he just assume
the appearance of the regular mailman and
whistle up the driveway reading the postcards?


No, the medieval theologians control the court.
The only question you ever hear is about
the little dance floor on the head of a pin
where halos are meant to converge and drift invisibly.


It is designed to make us think in millions,
billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse
into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one:
one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet,
a small jazz combo working in the background.


She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful
eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over
to glance at his watch because she has been dancing
forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.


please note: art by Verrocchio

Comments

  1. That is marvelous! Thanks millions and billions for posting this poem. 0:)

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  2. You love your dancers, don't you?

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  3. Beautiful and thought provoting!

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  4. Thank you for opening me eyes, will be on the lookout for an angle - will let you know, when I found one.
    Very interesting site you call your own, enjoy visiting it very much.

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  5. Does the concept of angels help us live better lives?

    Do we evolve as we dream of things we want to be like?

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  6. That is a beautifully imaginative poem. Thank you so much for sharing it!

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  7. Shiny, I love Billy! And his wonderful sense of humor. He came to Taos once and did a reading, it was a great night.

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  8. Beautiful and thought-provoking, per Gail. I am planning on taking a closer look at Bob the mailman.

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  9. Neat poem! Only Billy Collins (or you, for that matter) would think of the angel jazz dancing on the head of that pin. What questions do we ask, indeed.

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  10. I love Billy Collins and I'd never read this one! Thank you!

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  11. Camping up north once I was awakened by a chorus the likes of which I'd never heard before.

    I could have sworn they were angels.

    No, just wolves.

    But they were probably dancing on the head of a pin. Or listening to jazz.

    Lakeviewer: I like your questions. If you're second one is true, I'm becoming a dog. ; ^ P

    Thanks Distracted for a scintillating post!

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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