Angels: A Poem

I wasn’t going to write anything about the 9/11 anniversary because, well, so many other people are saying so many things.

But then I read this poem on the Reb Jeff blog, by Florida rabbi Jeff Goldwasser. And I thought that you might not find it anywhere else. So here it is.

Angels

By Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser, 9/10/2011

Jacob dreamed
Of angels going up and down,
A link between heaven and earth —
A ladder
With angels going up and
Angels coming down
Linking heaven and earth.
And Jacob wakes
And says,
“I didn’t know that
This was the House of God.
I didn’t know that.”

But now Jacob’s dream is on television
And I keep seeing those angels
In my dreams,
Even after ten years.
The ladder is a skyscraper,
Two of them,
And I wish I could stop
This dream, playing in my head.
With the angels climbing up the stairs
In their heavy boots and their red hats,
And the other angels falling down to earth
Without wings.

And the angels going up
And the angels coming down
Are on television
And Jacob is still asleep
And I don’t know,
How to wake him.
The House of God is on fire.
And these angels keep going up the stairs
When they know they don’t have any wings.

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Tags: 9/11, 9/11 poetry, Jacob's ladder, Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser, Reb Jeff