(The Holy Family with Angels by Rembrandt
van Rijn, 1606-1669, Dutch painter, printmaker,
and draughtsman)
BC: AD
This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future’s
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.
This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.
This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.
And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.
~ U. A. Fanthorpe (1929-2009), English poet
So telling! That "dull peace" so rich...and what our souls, what the world was desperate for. Christ is born! Many blessings of the feast to you, Maria.
ReplyDeleteYou are generous to give us a poem even on Christmas Day (though I am reading it on the 26th). :-)
I love this line "This was the moment when Before
ReplyDeleteTurned into After". Thank you for your blog. I just stumbled on it today. I have been meditating a lot on poetry and art (literature too) and this blog is a perfect addition to that. I'll share some favorite poems of mine another day. My Advent meditation centered on the painting Sunrise, Yosemite Valley by Albert Bierstadt and the Bible verse "The night is almost over, the day is at hand." You can see the light from the sun before the sun has actually risen. Advent is that time. Thanks for your blog!
Welcome, Meredith.
ReplyDeleteYou chose a beautiful aid to meditation. Check out the post for August 12 where I used that image. You can find two links to it on the right-hand column -- the artist's name in the label cloud or the month of August in the archive section farther below.