Waiting for Angels
The secret of waiting is the faith that the seed
has been planted, that something has begun.
–Henri Nouwen
Early Swallowtail enjoying jonquils & adjuga in Nancy’s front yard.
Too old to have another child,
I sometimes think of Sarah.
If angels visit to proclaim
astonishing news,
I’m determined not to laugh.
At 4:30 a.m. we scan for
November Leonid showers.
None sighted, but the sky’s
belly swells with promise.
In early light I find
a praying mantis egg case
on the garden fence.
We dig in daffodil bulbs
with vole-deterrent gravel,
then cover, tamp, and water,
just before first frost.
The deer change coats;
the pines brace and hum.
I don’t see angels
though I sometimes hear wings;
like the daytime stars,
I know they are there.
-Written by Nancy Corson Carter, A Green Bough: Poems for Renewal (2019). Nancy is a member of Church of Reconciliation, an Earth Care Congregation, in Chapel Hill, NC
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The way time travels in this poem, a deer changing coats, pays such remarkable attention to promises and patiently waiting.