For a moment or two,
the darkness of disenchantment,
cynicism, doubt, draw back
at least a little, and all the
usual worldly witcheries
lose something of their
power to charm…*
and thus eventually to do
bodily and spiritual harm,
in the past,
with battle-axe and sword,
today —
a drone, surgically striking,
but with collateral damage,
it is declared we must afford
and thus justify with euphemistic piping,
and now the threat of a new arms race
(Really? Another euphemism to embrace?) —
the bluster, the false bravado
all at a frenetic tweeting pace.
Thank God we have at least one day
or a moment within the day to lay
such non-sense aside
but not in wishful thinking or denial hide
and with admitted incomplete, partial
still yearning faith, resolve to cease
and desist our waring ways
and seek to do the Savior’s justice for
the remainder of our earthly days.
*Frederick Buechner, The Faces of Jesus
“The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light….” Thank you for these wonderful thoughts.
Good stuff Robert … like it or not, for me, and for you, too, this Christmas is different than others of late … your poem here captures the needed balance … of joy and of sober reflection … it’s not only about heaven, but Herod, too; or, just the other way around: it’s not only about Herod (easy to get lost here), but heaven, too … the surprise, the sly move on God’s part to find a place, obscure and yet full of history (city of David), to subvert Rome’s registry.