Hey everyone 
Here’s a few more poems I wanted to share with you. I wrote these during the Advent season of 2008…
All of them were inspired by experiences in my life at the time.
For example, the last one in the set, Love, was inspired by my experience of proposing to my fiancee, Kaylyn Houtari, whom I proposed to kneeling in the snow, in a field up at my old elementary school, on the Saturday before the Advent of Love.
Well, I hope you enjoy these poems, and that they encourage you or inspire you somehow
Blessings to you, and have a Merry Christmas
Advent Quartet
Hope
Against lonely walls, outside a church,
my heart and some leaves are scattered about,
trees are waiting for winter, but
this my season for now, a dying leaf
beautiful somehow, creation’s fall beneath
the gray clouds, the aching soil of the soul
in this, even some find thanks are in order
despite whatever chaos may seem to be
and my palms are splayed
on the rain-wet gravel, uneven,
troubled, troubling, searching, waiting,
for an advent of hope, to find,
and follow, a star, carrying a crux
of waiting, naked, for a healing touch.
Peace
With silent screams, boxed in rain,
my soul and my skin are seeking calm,
hands have played their part to turmoil, but
now are reaching, past frail tension to find,
to find an end to the war, then
some welcome return, and room in the heart,
to be forgiven for wrong, and loved still,
to be known in the night, to be found in the dark…
and my dreams are fading,
on the bed of waking to being here,
but still a promise, remains in the storm,
for an advent of peace, to be found in a face,
not my own, and once a child’s like mine,
trusting his yet unmet eyes, where compassion resides.
Joy
For answers on torn sidewalks, I’ve shuddered along,
my mind and some clouds are breaking into falling questions,
days I’ve searched for an end to darkness, but
this my prison for now, caged bird
with broken wings, learning to sing,
memories of sunlight warming, offer of strength,
to keep going, one step, and another step,
to hold on, even as I’m held on to,
and my trials are met with snow,
a child’s mirth, and melting away,
but in fierce tears and twisted knots these are expectations,
and an advent of joy can be found in a quiet room
among friends, for a father longing, and in knowing
I’m not alone now, a son crying a song for a new morning.
Love
Through drifts of failure and doubt I’ve planted my feet,
strength my own waning in the cold,
struggles I’ve printed in the powders of this road, but
now and always strength not my own I can reach and find,
and find by grace a presence, then some
warm refuge, an embrace, in the wild wastes of the mind,
and the dream of home fades not, shines still,
a great light appearing, as a lantern burning bright in the arctic night,
and my vows are not far from me now, soon to speak,
as I sink to my knee, a boy asking a man’s question,
and I can’t keep them, but then I’m not by myself,
and an advent of love will be found in caring eyes,
and a whisper of home in this: to find yourself
in the heart of another, and to find another in your own.
-written for Advent, 2008
