You touch so many different places,
The Torah wrestling with Jacob,
Christmas heralding a birth,
The Holy Quran,
Angels with dirty faces,
Films, TV and pop songs,
Hiding behind lamp-posts or finding parking spaces.
Somehow you manage to find those spaces,
Beyond our expectations,
Beyond our divisions.
Messengers of new ideas,
Comforting,
Challenging.
Mystery, myth or metaphor?
Stories, symbolism?
Dramatic images?
(Ideas are powerful!)
Not to be imprisoned in Victorian stained glass,
Neither to be forever dancing on the philosopher's pinhead,
Nor hidden in the pockets of the superstitious,
Not constrained by a tinsel halo, confined to a Christmas card,
As the serpents of war, injustice and greed,
Slither through our world,
I reclaim you,
For peace, for politics, for the peoples of the Earth.
Angel of Gaza,
Angel of Israel,
Angels of Iraq, Sudan and the Ukraine.
Hosts of angels watching over suffering places,
That never make our news.
May your eyes of flame challenge the tyrants,
Your songs of hope encourage the peacemakers,
Your soft wings enfold the suffering.
Angel of America,
Angel of Europe,
Shake awake the complacent.
Wrestle with the conflicted,
Whisper messages of peace to the humble.
Angels of Facebook and Twitter,
Of newspapers and television.
Amid the never ending stream,
Bring light,
And glimpses of truth.
All heavenly hosts,
Angels and Arc-angels,
Cherubim and Seraphim,
May a halo encircle our world,
That you may once again proclaim,
Tidings of great joy,
Peace and good will to the Earth.
And to my own Guardian Angel,
Find me a parking space,
Amid this troubled world,
A place where I might,
Be an angel too.
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