Poor Angels - Edward Hirsch

Poor Angels
Edward Hirsch

At this hour the soul floats weightlessly
through the city streets, speechless and invisible,
astonished by the smoky blend of grays and golds
seeping out of the air, the dark half-tones

of dusk suddenly filling the urban sky
while the body sits listlessly by the window
sullen and heavy, too exhausted to move,
too weary to stand up or to lie down.

At this hour the soul is like a yellow wing
slipping through the treetops, a little ecstatic
cloud hovering over the sidewalks, calling out
to the approaching night, “Amaze me, amaze me,”

while the body sits glumly by the window
listening to the clear summons of the dead
transparent as glass, clairvoyant as crystal.
Some nights it is almost ready to join them.

Oh, this is a strange, unlikely tethering,
a furious grafting of the quick and the slow:
when the soul flies up, the body sinks down
and all night—locked in the same cramped room—

they go on quarreling, stubbornly threatening
to leave each other, wordlessly filling the air
with the sound of a low internal burning.
How long can this bewildering marriage last?

At midnight the soul dreams of a small fire
of stars flaming on the other side of the sky,
but the body stares into an empty night sheen,
a hollow-eyed darkness. Poor luckless angels,

feverish old loves: don’t separate yet.
Let what rises live with what descends.

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Here, the author describes the difference between intangible part of ourselves, the soul, and the physical body. There are sets of contrasting images, some discussing the desires of the soul, while others show the view of the body. My father has often said "My mind tells my body what to do and my body says 'Forget it.'" So also here, there is friction detailed between the body and the soul. Both pull us in different directions and yet they are an integral part of who we are. There is a magic and a wonder that two things so seemingly opposite are together in one. 

While keeping this poem in mind, its techniques and its messages, here are some prompts that you may use to write a poem:

1. What are two things that are inseparably connected? What does each do or desire? In what ways are they alike and in what ways do their functions/viewpoints conflict? What is the purpose of their togetherness? Describe.
2. Similarly, pick two things that cannot be connected. What does each do or desire? In what ways are they alike and in what ways do their functions/viewpoints conflict? What is the purpose of their separation? Describe.
3. Take a line from this poem and use this in your poem (a title, a first line, or other). Write.
4. What else does this poem remind you of or inspire in you? Write.