An Angel's Asked About William Blake

An Angel's Asked About William Blake

By D.S. Martin

 
You ask   Was the young William Blake truthful  
saying he saw a tree filled with angels   their wings
glistening on every bough   or was he sailing
dangerously close   to the shipwreck of a beating  
weighing how far   he dare frame such a fearful fallacy?  
You say   Perhaps they were just birds  
& young William was playing with words  
Such an incident   if it ever occurred  
would be less memorable to the heavenly host  
most would hardly notice   a scruffy kid  
on a London street   even looking up into their tree  
Was he visionary    his eyes bugging wide  
in an apprenticeship of perceiving   having seen
what others could not see   or did he express his believing  
as though it were visible   stretching the faith he sought?
You ask   Was he mad   not knowing what was real  
or was he   trying to test his perceptions?
I say   Good questions

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D.S. Martin
Poet & Editor

D.S. Martin is Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College. Ampersand (2018) is available from Amazon, or Wipf & Stock, as are his other collections and anthologies. Visit his blog Kingdom Poets and Poems For Ephesians.

Photography by Eastlyn & Joshua Tolle