I give you Thomas Merton’s “Advent”.

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights, Skies, and be perfect! Fly vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors, And disappear. You moon, be slow to go down, This is your full! The four white roads make off into silence Towards the four parts of the starry universe. Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth. We have become more humble than the rocks, More wakeful than the patient hills. Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent, holy spheres, While minds, as meek as beasts, Stay close at hone in the sweet hay; And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight. Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our solemn valleys, You skies: And travel like the gentle Virgin, Toward the planets’ stately setting, Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!

For more Advent poems, hymns, and quotes, as well as a daily Scripture and  meditation, check out my Advent devotional, Lighten the Darkness. Lighten the Darkness for kindle is on sale this week for $2.99.  Click over and get it here.]]>