Some motionless conflict in the sky
As of Milton’s angels painted there
In all their radiance and red malice
It is a special happiness and universal
Simply to know the names of colors
And to see them said
She mixed the colors for house painters
That was Binghamton Rochester Indianapolis
I’ll take less luck if it means less stink she said
A special happiness
When clouds contest with clouds
In fixed flamboyance
Good versus Evil or beautiful cold hair
God loosed angels on us and they are the air
Source: Poetry (June 2009).
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This poem originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Poetry magazine
Born in the Bronx, Donald Revell received his PhD at SUNY Buffalo and is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, translations, and essays. Steeped in the work of Henry David Thoreau and William Carlos Williams, Revell’s poetry is “seriously Christian but not doctrinaire, mystical without setting intellect aside, angry over political matters without ever growing stale or shrill, and more often joyful than any other . . .
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