Angels, Spirits and Dreams of Men

Who are the angels? What do they do? Why do they exist? It was in thinking about these questions that this collection of poems came to be written. Angels are spirits: they are intelligences without bodies. As such, they may be contrasted with men who are 'enfleshed spirits': intelligent spirits conjoined with physical bodies. The Bible teaches that there are two kinds of angels: good and bad, faithful and fallen. Angels (Greek: angelos, 'messenger') bring messages and ministrations to men: good angels being sent from God, bad angels from the devil or Satan. Angels have exercised an extraordinary hold upon the fascination of mankind for millennia. Beginning with the Christian Bible (which names only two angels: Michael and Gabriel, and one fallen angel: Satan), I was able to draw upon a wide range of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions for this work. Readers at all familiar with the topic will likely already be aware of the rich cornucopia of narrative material available from public sources. The beginning of each poem in this collection provides a reference to the legend or source that inspired the poem: to which those interested are referred for further reading.