Earthbound Angels

To look upon what’s heavenly

Is not so rare as I once thought,

For here your mortal angels live,

Revealing what your unbound soul has wrought.

And all the love that touches me

Is more than I deserve,

And more than I can ever give

If I could even find the nerve

To follow every word

And render each desire deferred

An offering to you.

But even these I struggle mightily to do.

So, if you may extend your mercy

Another measure more,

I’ll try again to find what’s truly

Everything we’re hoping for.

I’ll watch the angels everywhere

And, grateful for their humble hearts,

Surrender all my hopes of heaven

Rewarding me for any parts

I’ve played in some redemption,

As if what little I may offer

Demands a pardoning exemption

From all the weight of all my wrongs.

Perhaps with that I’ll see

The freeing liberation of

Our souls’ equality

Existing in your overwhelming grace.

Perhaps the sins that scar each face

Will drown in your infinity.

I’m not the one to say.

I’ve known my own proclivity

To want to save the world today,

Perhaps to gain some future destiny.

The truer angels see

We’re all as one,

And none can lay a stronger claim

Regardless of the work that has been done.

It seems to me, if I am comprehending,

The only way to bring salvation

Is love that goes beyond myself completely,

Enriching what surrounds my own creation.

When all the heart is bent on that,

The sparks of heaven may appear.

My own attempts are clumsy yet.

Perhaps with time I’ll shed my cloak of fear.

It’s then the better angels of the soul

Emerge and, in the process, heal us whole.


With all of the negative news that seems to plague every day, it can be easy to forget that there are so many good people working, without much recognition, to do what they can to make this world a better place. This poem is about them - and about the example they set for us all.