Born in a writers' workshop in Ouray, Colorado, Angel Unaware presents human history as seen through the eyes of various personae. An angel whose assignment is to "observe" humanity writes from the viewpoint of a being who has no comprehension of what it is to be human, giving a unique view to our history. Interspersed throughout are poems from the perspectives of various characters, both Biblical and contemporary. Together the poems function to communicate faith. Treating Biblical events with sincerity and respect, the poems explore the unity and logicality of a coherent and consistent world view. Phrases and images recur throughout to weave poems and sections together in order to express the sublime. As literary poetry (a/k/a "academic" poetry, which is a rather stuffy-sounding term), the poems take various forms--sonnet, haiku, ballad, tercet, couplet, and prose poem, as well as other stanza variations and free verse forms. The uses of imagery, paradox, ambiguity, patterns of sound, and other devices serve to intensify the meaning and communication of experience.
From the introductory poems to the final ones, the reader should find poems that enlighten, delight, and possibly even shock, as characters, such as Eve, Bathsheba, and a servant-girl in Nero's court, are given voices to express their perception of events and circumstances. As the poet Jeff Knorr writes, "When reading poetry, whether we're an experienced reader or not, one thing is certain: Poetry ought to move us [ ...] It might make us cry out loud over a page. It may move us to very simple and quiet contemplation of our own life [...] And, poetry may turn us inside out without warning." May you react to these poems with any or all of these responses, and may you enjoy what you read.
