Advent Tabulations
Ways of counting down – by Hubble shot,
and by alpine scene – dissimilar paths
but leading to the same event,
the baby’s birth in a manger under
stars, remembered over ages by holidayers
and zealots alike. The music of the spheres,
puzzles and candy crushes, towering
nebulae, all are tokens to take us to the date
when lights are strung on the night and hope
is brought out to air, the tide turned on much
that sits a burden on us, not all of it
our responsibility, but we carry it on,
aeons after, aeons before. Just as we read
the signs of defeat, we turn toward
the possibility of victory. We are counting
24 days in which little pleasures are piled up
to brighten the dark of winter, to shine
in one blaze of delight in our own being,
in our species, triumphant, powerful,
glorious, redemptive, delicate, a small
beating heart, a heat in a small bed,
telling us our place in all that is, is.
Ways of counting down – by Hubble shot,
and by alpine scene – dissimilar paths
but leading to the same event,
the baby’s birth in a manger under
stars, remembered over ages by holidayers
and zealots alike. The music of the spheres,
puzzles and candy crushes, towering
nebulae, all are tokens to take us to the date
when lights are strung on the night and hope
is brought out to air, the tide turned on much
that sits a burden on us, not all of it
our responsibility, but we carry it on,
aeons after, aeons before. Just as we read
the signs of defeat, we turn toward
the possibility of victory. We are counting
24 days in which little pleasures are piled up
to brighten the dark of winter, to shine
in one blaze of delight in our own being,
in our species, triumphant, powerful,
glorious, redemptive, delicate, a small
beating heart, a heat in a small bed,
telling us our place in all that is, is.