[Editor’s Note: Over the next three days, as the anticipation of Advent transforms into Christmas joy, Transept artists offer literary gifts for reflection during this season of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.]
An Advent Victory
The dark-wood table holds a wreath
Of tired, twisted arms of pine,
Pierced with five holes and bleeding sap,
Cold and cheerless in a pit-mirk trap
And silent as the dead divine.
From soured mead-halls, twisted songs,
And battlefields long dead in mist,
A will o’wisp comes shining forth
And claims that all still has some worth,
That candle flaming Hope has kissed.
From tired chaos, battered souls,
And whirling voids of tortured night,
A second tiny spark burns still,
Uncanny, quiet on its hill,
As Peace puts up a lonely fight.
From mournful stiffness, blasted strength,
And tragic falls in every stand,
A humble laugh ignites a spark
For a third light dancing in the dark
As Joy comes to shake the land.
From friends betrayed, from broken hearts,
And from the questioned worth of pain,
A bleeding candle burns once more,
The fourth to see the stable door
And claim that Love should rise again.
And from a dirty feeding trough
Comes one last light to guide the lost,
A carpenter is born and set
Into the center; Savior, yet
A baby, to complete the cross.
And tongues of flame shine on the wreath
That’s crossed by candles and a grin.
The world still toils on its way,
But the branches sacrificed today
Rejoice His victory again.