Christmas poem
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Christmas Trees

I.Beside the road, browning in the breeze,Are th’unadorned and corpselike Christmas trees.Their severed stumps pine for forsaken sod,The rootless forest for a promised Rod. Dangling from a beam of their own bark,They wait in vain for cries of joy or “Hark!”In these rejected trees we find reversedThe truth that He who hangs as such is Continue reading
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After a Children’s Christmas Service

Would the Light of the World have liked light-up shoes?Or eagerly volunteered to switch on the tree?Or struggled not to wiggle when asked to stand and sing? Would he sprint, unsteady, to the altarOr jump merrily from its step—Bowing midair lest He forgetUpon landing? We often consider Him as a baby With all His infant Continue reading
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Joseph’s Magnificat

My troubled soul shall magnify the LordWhose glory proves through my humiliation.May it be unto me according to his wordFor the promised hope of this, my own nation. The Master works through my humbled estateAs the fitting tool to smooth my splintered grain.He gives and takes away and by his greatCraft turns my lonesome loss Continue reading
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IV. The Leper (1:40-45)

Unclean,I hide myself.Lest I am seenAnd sent away,Purged from the cityWhile dogs and rats are allowedTo stay and hide in its alleys, Infect its crevices. But they sayI am unclean.I do not argue;I am one of the twice-cursed onesWho cannot hide his sinsBeneath a cloak ofSmooth, clear skin,The whitened sepulchreOf an unblemished face. I am Continue reading
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No Silent Night Was This

Sweet “Stille Nacht” is but a prayer;No silent night was this, When angel hosts announced on highThe birth of God with Us. Holy, yes, but earthly too,No silent night was this,When with one final virgin cryLabor turned to bliss. ‘Tis but a late-come comfort wish;No silent night was thatWhich brought the babe but born to Continue reading
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Conjunction

Unlike that lone first star of Christmas nightThis union burns expectedly above, But like that light, this, too, shines highest, brightAnd may still testify of searing love. Drawn closer by the work of innovation,Man captures and contains this far-off flare.How like and unlike the flame of incarnationThat, inverse, came to earth to draw us near. Continue reading
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An Advent Poem

Empty, the sanctuary waits beneath a tree, beneath a cross— the branches a burden and trough to bear body and newborn king. White wails of a storm without are vespers whispered warm within, And yet echo infant, age-old cry — of beginning and of end. In the lonely silence, all is dead, yet all holds living Continue reading
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