Angels Everywhere

Poems

"The word 'angel' means 'messenger' and the title poem of this book, 'Angels Everywhere,' presents the idea that what I often glimpse is a flicker of glancing light, as if a heavenly being is darting in and out of my viewing, allowing me entry into a realm beyond my physical, experiential world—brief revelatory messages from somewhere beyond. I'm hoping that as you read these poems, (more than once, aloud if possible) something like Wordsworth's 'intimations of immortality' will enliven your own perceptions of the world as you experience it. Maybe your own fleet of angels will show up!" —Luci Shaw, from the Introduction

Angels Everywhere is published under Paraclete Press's Iron Pen imprint. In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God's goodness that is stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint is inspired by this spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope.

©2022 Luci Shaw (P)2022 Luci Shaw

Later Life and Still Surprised!

I had a conversation with Luci on the phone sometime shortly after my first wife died. I told her I was thinking about writing my way through loss and grief with letters and poems. She encouraged me to embark on the journey assuring me through patience and grit and intense attention to the realities of living and dying the words would come and my heart would heal.

Just days before Luci died at the age of 96, I listened to her read in this audiobook her last collection of poems “Angels Everywhere”. Like Sarah of old she laughed at times with childlike wonder as she read poems pregnant with revelatory messages from somewhere beyond, still surprised by life and the power of a poem.