Poetry list, Christmas
Breath, beasts and straw
Another breath –
but this one is God’s
– his first
as a brother and saviour,
Jesus.
He comes to us on our own terms
but many say he can’t.
This birth is a fact of history
and also much more:
the refutation of human glory,
self seeking and personal triumph
whilst at the same time each and
every soul’s hope and the
promise of the unimaginable.
Without Him our lives
are but as straw;
without love we
are nothing but
brute beasts.
In our midst God is born.
Emmanuel.
Both then and now
and till the end of time,
our cold and poverty,
the beast and the straw
are filled and inhabited
by a glory we cannot see
– yet.
© Neil Thompson 2018