MG: Praise the Lord and skip a step over Satan.. Gotta post this poem yet again because it speaks of the fallen angel who doesn't want anything created unless it's perfect. Uncle Jimmy responds to the lil' bugger in exactly the right way too. "Another Angel" by James Merrill Above my desk, whirring but self-important (Though not much larger than a hummingbird) In finely woven robes, school of Van Eyck, Hovers an evidently angelic visitor. He points one index finger out the window At winter snatching to its heart, To crystal vacancy, the misty Exhalations of houses, and of people running home From the cold sun pounding on the sea; While with the other hand He indicates the piano Where the Sarabande No. 1 lies open At a passage I shall never master But which has already, and effortlessly, mastered me. He drops his jaw as if to say, or sing, 'Between the world God made And this music of Satie, Each glimpsed through veils, but whole, Radiant and willed, Demanding praise, demanding surrender, How can you sit there with your notebook? What do you think you are doing? However, he says nothing--wisely: I could mention Flaws in God's world, or Satie's, and for that matter How did he come by his taste for Satie? Half to tease him, I turn back to my page, Its phrases thus far clotted, unconnected. The tiny angel shakes his head. There is no smile on his round, hairless face. He does not want even these few lines written. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html