Angel Wings [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here. 

I got so  many beautiful holiday cards this year, and one of my favorites was from Poetry Princess Tanita, who sent one of those amazing pop-up cards I first saw on Shark Tank. Isn’t she gorgeous?

Angel Card
Photo: Laura P. Salas

This image makes me think of several things:

  1. why snail mail connects in a whole different way
  2. fishing nets
  3. dragonfly wings

And here’s my first draft, about one of my favorite winter sights: bare tree branches against a clear blue sky. 

Maple in Winter

 

It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count.) I’m at the dentist this morning, fixing my tooth that broke on a Little Debbie cake recently :>( I will comment on poems as soon as I can:>)

 

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57 Responses

  1. Laura, the card and your poem are both beautiful. “Catching heaven/in a net of earth”–love that! I know I’ll have those lines in mind as I enjoy the scenery on the way to school. Here’s my first draft.

    Potential

    With air, space
    and care
    Flattened cuts and swirls
    Unfold in delicate glory
    emerging
    triumphant

    1. Thanks, Molly! Love the juxtaposition of “delicate glory.” Glory seems so strong, and it’s unexpected after delicate. Lovely!

  2. She is so pretty…and so is heaven in a net of twigs against the sky.

    Paper folded
    cut and again
    make a message
    fingers sing
    hallelujah
    hallelujah
    angel wings

    1. I love the idea of fingers singing! I have a poem in a forthcoming collection with Wordsong–this poem is about ASL, and the fingers compare themselves to birds and say they “soar and sing Rodrigo’s words.” I also love that this hallelujah is action, making things happen! Also, Linda, thanks for being on my blog tour. I can send out your book today–did you want it signed to you or anyone?

  3. THE ANGEL’S MESSAGE

    His promise is as golden as her hair.
    “I am with you; you’re not solitaire.”

    1. Mmm. Isn’t that so much of what drives us? Feeling like we are not alone? Lovely.

  4. Laura, I love “catching heaven in a net of earth.” The word dragonfly caught my fancy this early, icy morning. (We are having our third snow day in a place that never gets snow, but the ice and freezing temps create havoc.)

    Dragonfly

    How does lace fly?
    Folded open against the sky.
    Air swifts
    and lifts.

    1. Margaret–this is a GEM! PS Do you want your blog tour copy of MEET MY FAMILY signed to you or anybody?

  5. Catching heaven in a net of earth is comforting. I have always loved the words “gossamer wings.” Decided on an acrostic verse this morning. I imagine guardian angels are working overtime during our current weather situations.

    Celestial Guardians

    Always hovering
    Never sleeping
    Gossamer wings
    Ensconse
    Lovingly
    Securely

    1. I don’t even know if I believe in angels, but this poem makes me feel so safe and cared for!

      1. Thank you Laura. For some reason I never received the “confirm” prompt when I submitted. I assume I’m still legal 😉

      2. Received it on the reply to your reply. Maybe I just dreamed I did it correctly on the first try. Sorry!

  6. I am not big on angels in the form of a woman, but they are pretty.
    They do remind me of those women who quietly endure and continue to care for others.

    Blessed

    She held
    her breath
    And curbed
    her voice;
    As she was
    cursed,
    She blessed.

    By Donna JT Smith

  7. Laura, I love the last two lines of your poem. Everyone’s poems seem especially beautiful today.
    I also love the sight of bare branches against a blue sky, but somehow the picture made me think of lace.

    whitecaps
    waves leaving lace
    in their wake

  8. Laura-love poems about trees and yours evokes a lovely image. Thanks for this place to share our words.

    A dragonfly spies her wings
    reflected in water below
    and wonders
    “Where is my halo?”

    By Ann Magee

  9. Your poem made me go to the window and stare at some maple branches, Laura! Lovely image.

    Paper into Lace

    fold, fold, crease
    snip here
    snip there
    snip, snip
    stop

    unfold, smooth
    wonder!

    1. This is so fun! It reminds me of making paper snowflakes. I don’t know why, but they always mesmerized me, even if all mind ended up looking quite square.

  10. Beautiful card

    poem By Jessica Bigi

    Friendly Getting

    according wings of stain glass
    arcing across sunny sky
    birch parchment folds
    snowflakes into paper angles

  11. You make me homesick for Christmas—again. I just brought the little poinsettias downstairs to my indoor garden, where they will turn green and flourish.

    Prayer
    golden
    delicate
    folded
    like an angel’s wings
    like a letter
    from me
    to God

    —Kate Coombs

  12. Lovely! I’m so glad you liked the card. I’m not a huge fan of female angels, either — I prefer the reality Luci Shaw’s poetry expresses where she insists upon their androgyny — but those wings — filigreed nets capturing heaven — are lovely.

    This is far more than fifteen words, but thought I’d share anyway

    The Labors of Angels

    Upon seeing the painting by Roger Wagner,
    The Harvest Is the End of the World and the Reapers Are Angels

    Plucking our meager treasures, grain
    by grain, we disregard celestial messengers
    to our jeopardy.

    Sexless and muscular, angels
    must wrestle, pitting light against
    sinew and darkness. They arrive
    without notice, blazing, terrifying us
    with good news.

    Barren or virgin
    we bear our improbable children
    and angels raise heaven like a song.
    Still, angels can weep;
    in your mind’s eye, see
    their clear, mineral tears.

    Against the indigo sky,
    where judgment pulses
    like an aneurysm, sunlight spins
    horizontal threads across the field until

    the yellows in the standing wheat stalks
    match the low light. Harvester angels
    cast huge wings of shadow,
    scything a crop, lifting it
    from the skin of an acre
    like fleece from a sheep’s flank.

    It is only later that they delicately
    unhook teasel, thistle, burdock
    from the heavy gold grain.

    Luci Shaw
    From Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation (Eerdmans, 2006)

    1. Wow. Those harvester angels are both beautiful and eerie. And judgment like an aneurysm…I wish my mind came up with stuff like this! Thanks, Tanita, for the card and the poem:>)

  13. Laura, I really enjoyed your poem. I always enjoyed looking at the patterns the bare branches make on the sky. I don’t know why I must always find creepy (it’s a picture of an angel, for crying out loud!), but I was drawn to the slats in the background. It reminded me of a covering for an air duct or vent.

    I sit and wait
    Behind the grate
    To watch you dream
    Shhh..don’t scream

    1. Oooh, I love creepy poems! This is awesome! The slats are blinds, which I will now be imagining serial killers hiding behind.

    2. That is creepy! I really like how you focused on a different portion of the photo–though I don’t envy Laura her new-born serial killer worries.

  14. Laura that pop up card is beautiful and your poem is an equal match. I too love bare trees, especially when the sun shines through the snow covered branches.

    Grace

    Senses numb,
    affect flat.
    You popped into my life,
    and raised my spirit.

    1. Thanks, Jean. Your poem made me smile, and a picture of a flat tire that gets inflated popped into my head!

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