Authors: Jane Yolen

Among Angels (4 page)

BOOK: Among Angels

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foxing, and tips fell

from the burnished calfskin,

laid to rest on the wooden last,

like a foot unfit for walking.

He crimped and stitched,

and the angel watched,

and the shop grew hot

as a foundry. He threaded

his needle with fire,

and with fire nailed heel

to sole, and with fire

pulled the shoes

from the last. The angel

put them on,

first the left,

then the right,

stepping so softly

even the snow did not speak of it.

â
NANCY WILLARD

Visitation in a Pewter Dish

When Jacob finished stitching

the seventh pair of shoes,

his hands smelled of new

leather, as if the calf

whose mortal part he'd shaped

wanted to claim him.

Five blind bells woke

the fields at the edge of town.

Men left off binding the rain

into shocks of gold and rested

at noon under the plane trees.

Angelus Domini
â

The cows were happy boulders,

and Jacob saw, in a pewter dish

on a dirty table, seven angels

lapped in their own light.

Prove all things
, sang the dish.

Hold fast to that which is good
.

Jacob said nothing, only watched

with great joy. Wheels clattered

on the cobbled streets.

Two customers paid with gold,

two with wool, three with pork,

and the shoes took their first steps

out of the fields of light.

â
NANCY WILLARD

Jacob and the Angel

The chandelier of stars

hung low above the field

when the angel closed on him.

He could not pry

porphyritic fingers

from his thigh,

nor break the granite hold.

Stone has no heart for pity.

He was lamed before night's end,

named before dawn;

shriven, driven, broken, repaired.

The angel could have gone on and on.

God asks much for little,

little for much.

We who have no choice must choose:

to win, to lose,

to wrestle with angels.

â
JANE YOLEN

For the Angel of Death is forbidden to take a man while he is engaged in the study of Torah.

âfrom “Rabbi Loew and the Angel of Death” in Howard Schwartz's
Lilith's Cave

Rabbi Loew and the Angel of Death

Leaving his studies,

sweet as honey,

thick as bread,

Reb Loew spies a figure

at the temple,

a long shadow

amid long shadows,

sharp knife readying

above the scroll of names.

Do not tremble,

Reb Loew,

your hand will save the multitudes,

your will

will halt the plague.

Leaving his studies,

sweet as new cream,

thick as wine,

Reb Loew spies a figure

in his study,

a small light

amid small lights,

single white rose

in his childish palm.

Do not tremble,

Reb Loew,

your hand will save your grandson,

your will

will vault the heavens,

and all the angels but one

will dance the letters of your name.

â
JANE YOLEN

And when the young man went down to wash himself, a fish leapt out of the river, and would have devoured him.

âTobit, VI: 2
.

Tobias and the Fish

Grab this fish by the gills, said the angel,

and draw him to you, as if he came

by appointment to watch

our dry light drench his interior

castle, unshuttered at last.

Slit open the envelope of his flesh.

Lay his heart on a bed of coals.

When bad dreams trouble you,

the smoke's thin fingers

will scroll up your sorrow.

Even the gall of this fish unclouds

eyes whited over with grief.

Alive, he swam beside us

and calmed the dark waters.

â
NANCY WILLARD

The Archangel Michael Delivers a Sermon to the Stars

Mercury, Venus, the dancing sisters,

you think you spin in endless ellipses;

there is an end.

Saturn, Jupiter, the stars that touch

nose of bear, hunter's arrow,

ram's bright horns,

there is an end.

Uranus, Neptune, the bull's hooves,

the bright fish tail,

there is an end.

All you stars and constellations,

all you black holes and planetary nations,

there is an end.

The heavens are but a bright orrery

set in motion by the breath of God.

â
JANE YOLEN

About the Authors

NANCY WILLARD grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has written two novels, seven books of stories and essays, and twelve books of poetry, including
The Sea at Truro
(2012). A winner of the Devins Memorial Award, she has received NEA grants in both fiction and poetry. Her book
Water Walker
was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and she won the Newbery Medal for
A Visit to William Blake's Inn
. Willard is an emeritus professor at Vassar College.

JANE YOLEN is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children's book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for previously published material:
“An Angel Considers the Naming of Meat” and “The Mission of the Puffball” originally appeared in
Field
. “An Angel Tells the Birds to Gather for the Great Supper of God” and “A Carol for the Shepherds” originally appeared in
The Formalist
. “An Inconvenience of Wings” originally appeared in
Passages North.
“Angels among the Servants” and “The Winged Ones” originally appeared in
The New Yorker
. “Angels in Winter” from
Household Tales of Moon and Water
, copyright Â© 1987 by Nancy Willard, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. “Visitation in a Pewter Dish II” originally appeared in
Caliban
. “Gabriel Returns from the Annunciation” and “Tobias and the Fish” originally appeared in
Confrontation: The Literary Journal of Long Island University.
“Harpo and the Angel” originally appeared in
The Laurel Review
. “Angel in a Window” originally appeared in
The Gettysburg Review
, volume 8, number 1, and is reprinted here by permission of the editors. “The Lesson on Guardian Angels at Star of the Sea Elementary” originally appeared in
New Letters
. “Lucifer” and “Angels Fly” originally appeared in
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
“Harahel Writers on the Head of a Pin” originally appeared in the
Catholic Library Association Journal
.