An invitation to go deeper,
to penetrate the hard-worn surface
of our habitual this-and-that, permit entry
to images, suggestions, even fears
that normally are held up at the gate.
A summons to release your grip, filter beneath
the spoken words, and let your mind be led
far past the hard and fast and on toward
the soft and slow, the tender and the wise.
A passport to an unacquainted realm
where stables shelter royalty,
sheep and oxen kneel,
shepherds join the heavenly chorus,
and the secret of the ages is disclosed
within the midnight-piercing cry
of an infant newly born.
Advent poetry reading — A poem
