Angel on the Horizon
By John Herlihy

I finally met in person a true celestial angel;
He smiled as we have read in the sacred evangel.
I am a simple soul that he should reveal himself to me.
In all his luminous, universal glory for me clearly to see.
At first, I saw him standing there alone on the horizon,
Gazing benevolently upon me before I had a chance to run.
Wings with full extension in resplendent feathered regalia,
Seeming to reach all the way from Kansas City to Mongolia.

You can imagine the sight simply took away my breath;
I stood there as though awaiting the prophecies of Seth.
Needless to say, at such an event, what does one say.
Howdy? How you doin’? Or simply utter donkey bray?
I can tell you most prosaically I was stunned, floored;
All questions on the hereafter vanished that I had stored.
My own silence brought me back down onto the earth;
For one brief moment, I felt as innocent as at my birth.

Standing aloft, the angel diminished the horizon of this world;
As he approached, he seemed to dwindle in size as if unfurled.
Expecting him to get even bigger the nearer he approached,
The opposite happened, reducing in size as if in faint reproach.
In the distance, his refined features blended into blinding light;
His luminosity glowed like a sun to outshine everlasting night.
Forget about any idea you may have to project earthly time;
Eternity had clearly stepped into the moment to become mine.

Feelings of utter joy entered through every aperture and pore;
My soul replenished with mercy, wishing to fall down and adore.
How ready we are to give up the world and fall down in disbelief;
Our petty fears vanished, all worries gone, nothing left but relief.
How for many years, I have endured frustration and suffered loss,
Expectations but shattered mirrors, our hopes but winter frost.
The mystery of life leaving us awash with questions and doubt;
We think we know how to act without a clue what life is about.

As I stood there quaking in my boots, he put his hand on his heart;
His breathing was even and his angelic countenance smiled at last.
I am the messenger of truth, he then intoned as sweetly as a song;
I bring you good tidings, he murmured as deep sounding as a gong.
What you are witnessing is the world of spirit that is always there;
What you experience within your heart, he affirmed, is forever near.
Close your eyes, he uttered further, and you will see the stars of night;
Open your soul to God, he affirmed, and you will gaze on eternal light.

At times, the dream of reality doesn’t match the reality of the dream;
A crack opens into time’s continuum and life is not what it may seem.
The luminosity of the beloved angel slowly, ever so slowly, dimmed;
Until I finally stood alone once again as a solitary man who has sinned.
Already I was missing him, wondering what happened, was he truly gone;
Alone with myself once again, I became conscious who I was, named John.
But indeed, the truth was there all around me, nature and spirit and light;
I now walk across God’s earth, to the very horizon, out of my own night.