November 30, 2012

My Journey to God

The Angel

The child was dead.
Since he had been a good

child, an angel
was telling him a story:

When a good
child dies, an angel

appears
and, together,

they visit all the places
the child has loved …

And that’s
just what they did.

But the angel
had plans of his own.

The angel told another story:
On that barren street there

lived a poor
little boy who had been ill

since birth.
The boy loved sunshine.

So his friends told him stories
of the forest. They

brought branches
of greenery. They brought

wild violets and pansies.
One bloom

had a root
and the bloom grew

and grew. The flower
was the boy’s

sunshine … .
The angel collected

his lonely
little lost blossom.

He collected the child.
Then he told the story to God.

By Nettie Farris
 

(Nettie Farris is a member of St. Mary-of-the-Knobs Parish in Floyd County. She wrote this poem after reflecting on a fairy tale titled “The Angel” by Hans Christian Andersen.)

Local site Links: