Advent Poem 1

Happy New Year!
The first day of Advent is upon us once again, and as I did last year, so I will do this year. I'm going to attempt to post a different Advent poem each day until Christmas, without repeating any that I used last year. Our first poem this year comes from the Archbishop of Canterbury.



Advent Calendar
by Rowan Williams

He will come like last fall's leaf fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.