As some of you know, I really enjoy poetry. As an English major, I studied a lot of poetry. Over the years I have written poetry, and even been fortunate enough to have some of them published. I think I like poetry because of the conciseness of the language. Trying to say something well using very few words is a challenge.
One of our church members, Jamie Traylor, gave me a book a few years ago of Advent readings based on a poem for each day. It is called Haphazard by Starlight by Janet Morley. So, for today's “Reflections” blog, I want to share with you this poem that I found meaningful for Advent. It is by archbishop Rowan Williams:
Advent Calendar
He will come like last leaf's fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud's folding.
He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.
He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.
He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like a child.
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