Christmas Web
giving
receiving
buying
wrapping
sending
sticky fibres
entangling all
in festive gathering
overtime
evading
pausing
worshipping
redirecting
avoiding
silken strands
angelic
peace within
goodwill abroad
in perpetuity
-1968
Tree of Life
Christmas
tree of
life
cut down
to lift up
our source of
joy
-1972
The Knock
the old man pondered
the knock
the gentle tap of one forlorn
in the shaft of starlight
when the door creaked ajar
the best he could do
was the stable out back
and that became
the mistake of his life
that door should have been oiled
to usher in the morning star
to accompany the symphonic crescendo
sung so angelically from on high
it became the knock
the old man forever would ponder
-1975
Mary – 1976
Silhouette
across the eastern sky
beneath a blazing sun
below the clear cold stars
persistently plodding
beyond windswept dunes
past sporadic oases
toward a future promise
behold the ungainly beast
sign of humble plodders
through the arid desert
of our time
burning with fired hope
of a new creation
-1978
Nocturnal Sight
out of the darkness
I see you there
shining all the time
not a blinding light
shattering the night
but a distant beckoning
for patient movement
from sadness or despair
toward joy and hope
-1979
Smallness Overflowing
a quivering whimper
in a dank stable
builds to crescendo
bursting the bondage
of muteness
a flickering starlight
in a chill sky
blazes to brilliance
shearing the shackles
of darkness
God’s outpouring
in this season
of Christmas
seeps into our being
quenching our thirsting
‘til joy be full
-1988
Christmas Carver
the chips curled curiously
as the chisel followed
the contours
of the discarded driftwood
slowly the wings arched
hov’ring, brooding, poised
to touch the shore’s debris
the Carver could feel
the muscular shoulders
stretching
and the body’s tender
lightness
the dove descended
into the chaotic
brokenness
of a spiritless world
and the Carver felt
the incarnate being of another
and knew the world of
Christmas
from the inside
-1991
Courageous Dreamer
and where was Joseph
courageous dreamer
when mother and child
took centre stage
on the side street
of nowhere?
shadowed meekly
trusting that light
shining through dinginess
was illumination enough
besides
it was her turn
after years of silent pondering
to speak of life-giving joy
Joseph chose
to watch and listen
-1992
Christmas Jubilee
peace and good will to all
(no exceptions)
the angels sang
so Christmas includes
homelessness
(businesses too brisk to care)
a couple shut out
(but try the shed)
desperate
(the baby is due)
but that birth
(as it turns out)
is God’s new beginning
a journey of coming home
(as in jubilee returning)
supplanting
economics that divide
toward a future order
when no one will be
homeless
-1999
Family Christmas
yuletide beckons us toward
that distant holy family
Mary, sharing inner secrets
of a puzzling presence
with aunt Elizabeth
Joseph, wondering about
a strange pregnancy
sheepherders surprised
by a spectacular birth announcement
while eastern foreigners pursue
a brilliant constellation
toward beleaguered Bethlehem
(then and now)
and a very ordinary stable
the promise from long ago is that
each of us is joined to families
(near and far, past and future)
and invited into God’s very household
in a joyous celebration of life
-2002
Giving and Receiving
the awesome gift
of that Bethlehem birth
still stirs true giving
and in our receiving
the longing to give
moves beyond exchanging
into deep relationship
between giver and receiver
wrapped in love
and filled with joy
-2007
At Home
home is often where
we gather to celebrate in joy
or remember in sadness
over time our families ripple outward
in widening circles
but also dissipate with distance
as each generation emerges
to join the unfolding cycle of living
in that first Bethlehem home
a larger circle unfolded
as the Creator reached out to embrace
the whole human family
to make connections
healing the pain of loss
and offering hope to deepen delight
with a bond of unbreakable love
-2008
Refugees
the couple were refugees
whose precarious descent
from the hill country of Nazareth
to far off Bethlehem ended
with an ambiguous stable welcome
when word of the child’s birth
reached the echelons of local power
the family’s treacherous road
descended further to distant Egypt
where no welcome awaited them
then in the mystery of refugee travel
the most vulnerable guest turns out
to be the ultimate welcomer
revealing God’s grace-filled love
announced with joy abounded
-2009
Self-Emptying Joy
the fragility of that birth
in the precarious hygienics
of an ordinary stable
reveals the acute mortality
that God chose
to reach us at the very core
of our humanness
enabling a self-emptying joy
that transcends
yet another Christmas
with a celebration
that gives lasting meaning
to our earthly journey
-2010
The Essence of Christmas
The essence of Christmas eludes
until we stop to ponder
its utterly radical origins
in the ancient description
of that humble Bethlehem birth
as an act of divine self-emptying
an absolute freely-chosen self-giving
to be captured by this selfless loving
is to be released from the pressures
focused on arranging and getting
and all those expectations within
and without that miss
what is essential to liberating us
to discover the transforming presence
of the giver who enables us
to experience the joy of kenosis
the very essence of Christmas
