Crib & Cross

THE

CRIB

AND THE

CROSS

“…and His sepulcher shall be glorious!”  (Isaiah 11:10) 

The crib –

In the shadow of the cross

Rough and hard

No lustrous gloss 

No lustrous gloss

Or polished sheen

Just wood for His birth

And for the death scene

For the death scene they thought

Would end all

Casting its shadow o'er

Crib like a pall 

But the crib and the cross

Both did hold

His new Body warm

His dead Body cold 

Now His dead Body cold

Laid to rest in the tomb

As predicted resurrected

Warm-like from white womb 

As it had been known

Back to Adam’s rib

That the wood of the cross

Was foreshadowed by crib 

How was foreshadowed

This cross of wood?

Twas Mary’s tear drops

On crib as she stood 

Which dripped right and left

Middle up – middle down

In the stain of a cross

On wood crib on the ground 

The crib –

In the shadow of the cross

Wooden enmities ‘tween Mary

And shameful serpent’s great loss!

Christmas Day 2011

THE
MANGER'S
FEAT

"O come, O come"
The waiting said
Where pink turns green
And purple red.

Where fasting turns
To festive feasts
And midnight whispers
Come from beasts.

Where slate-gray skies,
Tint-brown clouds glow
Full and fraught
To burst with snow

And burdened mules
Who trod the roads
Can finally rest
Take off their loads.

Where families cut
Down Balsam fir
To scent their homes
Like incensed myrrh.

And men once dark
Living in danger…
Shed tears and kneel
At the feat of the manger!

Christmas 2011

CHRISTMAS
GOLD

If I had a big house
As a rule-of-thumb
At Christmas I'd have loved-ones
And others if they'd come.

If I had a big house
A cupboard warm and round
Would feed my Christmas guests
The staff of life here found.

If I had a big house
All men I would let in
At Christmas shed their burdens
Learn losses can be wins.

If I had a big house
All Christmas linens laced
And men who came to visit
Would yield a certain grace.

But I don't need a big house
I'm in the biggest home
Where hindered senses are enhanced
By way of Christmas-Rome.

For Christmas-Rome's eternal
Shall not be bought or sold
And yule-logs in perpetuum
Glow red fore Christmas-gold!!

Midnight Mass

THE

CRIMSON

CHRIST 

Red cassocks

For the Altar boys

At Mass on

Christmas Eve. 

Red cassocks

For the Altar boys

For those who

Don't believe 

Yet creep into

The church's womb

At Midnight Mass

Each year, 

They crave the sight

A drop of bright

Bold red

To stop their fear. 

And down the nave

The torches click

And clack the

Opaque glass 

And that is so

Their senses know

To hear, smell, see

The Mass 

And then the

Elevation

Transubstantiated

Bread... 

Confessed-converts

Scabbed souls with hurts

Bleed white

By Crimson's red.

Christmas Eve Breakfast

THE
MORNING
OF
CHRISTMAS EVE

It is the morn
Of Christmas Eve,
Scrambled eggs I cook.

Advent's Sunday,
Fourth and last
Most fasting now forsook.

The birds outside
Are singing carols
Pitched soprano-high.

Above the frost
Below the blue,
Their midnight moment nigh.

Then beasts will speak
In whispers low,
When Emmanuel did come,

How they could talk
And pray an hour...
While man was struck quite dumb.

Oh Christmas Tree!!!

OH CHRISTMAS TREE!

December 23rd has come
And all my Christmas
Shopping's done.

All gifts are hidden
Tucked away
Until the morn of Christmas day.

When children wake
Like souls confessed
All light and bright, it's Christmas Fest!

Oh Gloria!
We'll sing and pray
And open gifts on that Feast Day.

Around the creche
We'll praise adore
And go to Mass and praise some more.

Then back to home
For Christmas brunch
With our 10 kids it's quite a bunch.

And if we make it
All that far...
The tree still standing with its star...

We'll sigh a breath
Relief and more...
For the tree hasn’t fallen on the living-room floor!

December 22nd

EVER GREEN

December twenty-second
Three days before
The Fest.

I sit in coal-black
Morning,
Waiting for my guest.

Examining
My conscience,
I spy the dinge and dirt

The howling wind
And icy sleet
Intensify the hurt.

So out into
The dark,
I trod in sleety snow,

Searching for
The evergreen
Of hope the Christmas glow.

The scent of incense
Candles
Stained glass of midnight blue,

Is where the whipping wintry
Wind
Has blown me in to view

The altar
Tabernacle
Poinsettias, Christmas trees

Red, green
Decorations,
I fall upon my knees.

For in a
Shadowed corner
Quite private there’s a door

Above a light.
Glows ever green…
Of hope, “Go sin no more!”

Bethlehem's straw

SILVER

STRAW

Where Africa, Asia

And Europe do meet,

In the middle of the earth

David's line complete...

After Abraham and Sarah

In the middle of time,

Up until now

The Savior sublime...

Born in a stable

In the middle of the night,

In the middle of His creatures

Under middle-star bright...

Blessed Mother, foster-father

'Tween them both did sleep,

In the middle of a manger

In the middle of the sheep...

So in Church's stable sacrament

Holy Mother's confessioned-creche,

Your sins are swept with silver straw

So to shine from the middle of your flesh.