Here's a wee thing that made its way into print almost ten years ago now. Phew! Where does the time go? Anyway, I thought you might enjoy it round about this time of year. It looks better on, you know, paper (remember paper?) than in the herky-jerky format of an on-line cached file, but it still sounds good, if you give it the tone and the tempo of the poetic.
Instead of the idealized view we harbor of Mary, I like the idea that she was tired, but graciously polite and respectful, when receiving the visitors from the east, even if their visit may have seemed a bit intrusive. Is this not the way it is with grace, which theologians such as George Hunsinger and Walter Brueggemann have rightly describe as disruptive?
My favorite lines are these:
UPDATE: The first link is bad, though I'm not sure why. Meanwhile, the poem is included in my new volume, The Just, Quiet Wind.
Instead of the idealized view we harbor of Mary, I like the idea that she was tired, but graciously polite and respectful, when receiving the visitors from the east, even if their visit may have seemed a bit intrusive. Is this not the way it is with grace, which theologians such as George Hunsinger and Walter Brueggemann have rightly describe as disruptive?
My favorite lines are these:
The visitors beam with eyes full of starfirelight
taking the passive child and passing him lightly
with expert elder hands of night
May the Lord bless you this Advent and Christmas with his joyful Spirit of the sacred poetic, and may grace disrupt every moment when you find yourself at risk of slouching into drudgery and despond.
UPDATE: The first link is bad, though I'm not sure why. Meanwhile, the poem is included in my new volume, The Just, Quiet Wind.
No comments:
Post a Comment