SAINT JULIAN PRESS

Ron Starbuck ~ Poet

Christmas Crèche

It comes each winter
after the long darkness,
the light returns.
 
I have traveled now
to a town older
than memory,
 
to an undiscovered
countryside claimed by several
languages and faiths.
 
I have slept in the
crèche of Christ amongst
the dung and dust,
 
humbled by animals
mute in speech, not
in spirit.
 
Witnessed by
wise men, shepherds
and angelic hosts,
 
laid in a manger,
a crib for something
new and needed.
 
I have cried softly for
their children ~ Christian, Jew,
Muslim;
 
some who barely understand
the revelation of God’s enigma
left uncovered and veiled.
 
If I could tell you the truth
of Christmas, believe me
I would.
 
Listen, hear it in
the silence and stillness
of the self.
 
We’ve lost so much,
all the mystery and truth,
the deepest meaning
 
wrung out of the
story in a tirade
of religious literalism.
 
There are sacred stories 
and places in the world, 
meant to be internalized
 
and in doing so a
deeper certainty nearly
always laid bare.
 
Like the Christ child
left swaddled and
unadorned, resting,
 
hidden just outside
the City of David, Bethlehem.
God’s love being
 
born into the world
once more, each
Christmas morn.

Ron Starbuck
There Is Something About Being an Episcopalian

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Saint Julian Press, Inc. (July 1, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 108 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0996523170
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0996523172

Copyright 2016

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 Saint Julian Press, Inc. * Houston, TX 77008  *  Ron Starbuck ~ Publisher-CEO
 Email: ronstarbuck@saintjulianpress.com * Web: www.saintjulianpress.com