Book Read Free

Among Angels

Page 3

by Jane Yolen


  I

  A light in his workshop

  unlocked his sleep and, fearing

  a fire, the shoemaker

  ran barefoot

  across the snow

  and opened the door.

  The angel was waiting

  on sapphire feet.

  The shoemaker measured,

  marked, and cut. Soles,

  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.

  —NANCY WILLARD

  Visitation in a Pewter Dish

  II

  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—

  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.

  —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.

  —JANE YOLEN

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

  —from “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.

  —JANE YOLEN

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

  —Tobit, 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.

  —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.

  —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 © 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” ori
ginally 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.

  Compilation Copyright © 1995 by Nancy Willard and Jane Yolen

  Copyright © 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1990 by Nancy Willard

  Copyright © 1995 by Jane Yolen

  Cover design by Jesse Hayes

  ISBN: 978-1-5040-2154-8

  This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

  345 Hudson Street

  New York, NY 10014

  www.openroadmedia.com

  EARLY BIRD BOOKS

  FRESH EBOOK DEALS, DELIVERED DAILY

  BE THE FIRST TO KNOW—

  NEW DEALS HATCH EVERY DAY!

  EBOOKS BY JANE YOLEN

  FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA

  Available wherever ebooks are sold

  Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.

  Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases

  Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.

  Sign up now at

  www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters

  FIND OUT MORE AT

  WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM

  FOLLOW US:

  @openroadmedia and

  Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia

 

 

 


‹ Prev