Guardian Angel Czeslaw Milosz

Guardian Angel       Czeslaw Milosz

Close your eyes and imagine a guardian angel. Czeslaw Milosz allows his dreams to describe a surprise for us. Where would you discover this angel?  What would the guardian angel be doing? Czeslaw Milosz is one of my favorite poems. Let your spirit pause and listen to the words of his poem (say hello to poem and poet – Guardian Angel    Czeslaw Milosz ):

In my dreams my guardian angel takes the form of a woman,

Not always the same one. He knows that I, a fleshly creature,

Need a lover’s touch. We don’t make love,

But there is closeness between us, and understanding.

I never believed in the presence of angels, but my dreams have changed,

And when, recently, I found an underground grotto filled with treasure,

And we were moving the sakes together, I asked him

For one more moment of the dream, which gave me peace.

The image I’ve chosen is a detail by Elisabetta Sirani, 1638-1665.  Take a look at the links about her.  She generated poetry and pageantry at her funeral in Bologna. The image is from “An Allegory of Fame and an Allegory of Virtue.”  I don’t find the whole painting as striking as this little detail.  Isn’t that often the way?

In this little experimental site of mine I am matching poetry and literature with paintings (and eventually photography as well.)  (Take a look if you are curious about my photography at a website I’ve built for that work.)  Its a grand tradition to keep word and image together.  Some time ago I began seeing the links between image and word for the spiritual life.

I love the imagery of Czeslaw Milosz.  He blends his words with images in a wonderful dreamlike soup for this poem.  All great poets and orators make use of images that come to life in the imagination through the presentation and formulation of words.  Here, we have a rich feast!