(Image description: A field of lit candles glow together brightly.)
Note: Poems for Advent (Revised Common Lectionary – Year B).
Far Away
Far away
Far off or near
The waiting
Here
The post unopened
Or is it not yet delivered ?
Oh
The waiting
The Hours
The years
The hand of time
Ticking
Longing
Listening
Is he at the gate?
Is his voice calling?
That we would rush and fling the gate wide
How we long
That he would come in
(The party to begin!)
Yet
Our house
Our home
Our heart
Is not fit to welcome him
Yet we long for him
To come
And make our heart
Set for him
Yet too
May we wait
Even now
Ready
As we can be
——
Wildness
In the wildness
In the wilderness
How we need a shout
To awaken
And to stir our bones
We have been so long planted
Wayward, wandering
We hardly know what
Steady feet feel like
On level plain
We have been this way
For so long
The wynd-path
Our feet have made
We have run the path
Thinking it freedom
Yet tripped
Bound along the way
The shouting prophet
Fire-haired River-man
Calls us to the level
To the way by the water
To be washed and ready for him
A wildness in the wilderness
Unto freedom
Dare we go?
Let go?
We might
Very well
Live
——
Like those who dream
Like those who dream
Yet what dreams may we dream?
Too often our thoughts are nightmares
Akin to Shakespearean soliloquies
And not bright soaring hope
As children we first
Before
Loss
Pain
Hurt
Betrayal
Had bright abandon
Anything could be…
We could dream free
Together
Hear now
God sees and hears
Promises and Speaks
Restoration
We will see it
Behold it
Together
As ones who dream
Oh God
Help us
In our broken state
To holy dream
——
Not a fairy story
Elijah we would believe
Fairy stories
Capture the imagination better
Move the thought
To spark the mind
Yet not Elijah
Or Father Christmas
Or another
But God himself is coming
Surely as he came the first
He is returning
Prepare yourself
Live ready
—-
News
The news is horrid
Can’t stand to listen
Headlines cause us to take in breath
And hold it
Braced against the new
The news
Away shut
A woman washing
Dishes
Alone
When a messenger of news
Appeared
Her breath held tight
Within her
What could this mean ?
A plan
A purpose
An invitation to her
Holy
The Cosmic shift
Generational joy
Hers
Heaven held its breath
Waiting
Then all time heard
Her say yes
Oh what joy could be ours
If we dared say
“Lord God
Let it be done to me – according to your word”?
——
Glory
The rumbling of the earth
The quaking of the trees
At your core
You uprooted
The pealing back of the stars
The lightening bright beams
Which pale the sun
The reverberation
Of your bones
At the sight
And sound
Of glory
——-
Advent prayer
We do not yet know how to
Walk in the light
In darkness
In shadows
We have trod
We have no idea
How to be
Seen
And loved
Yes Seen
AND
Loved
But we want to
Teach us
How to come into the light
And to be rid
Of the shroud
Of shadows
In which
We too long
Have hid ourselves
Teach us to wear
Garments of grace
And new life
So up out
Of the water-depth
We might dwell
In the light
And air
Of
Your
Love
——
Ascribe
Ascribe to the Lord
Greatness
Write it upon your living
Upon your Words
And breath
And working
Upon
Your walking
And your loving
Let it be written
In word and deed upon you
The glory of God
Glory be to God
In all
Things
——
Love came down at Christmas
Love came down at Christmas
Thank goodness
Here we are surrounded
Too often by the lack of love
So many people lonely
Living apart
Too many
Told words of harm and hate
And not love
Love came down at Christmas
Healing love
Welcoming love
Freeing love
Love came down at Christmas
For the world
Praise God
May we hold this love
And share this love
This love which never runs dry
This ever expanding Hope-Love
To the world
This world
Thirsty
For love
Real love
Love’s name is:
Jesus
Go forth and share Love
Light the Lamp 