This poem from Joseph Brodsky’s Nativity Poems makes me feel the personhood of God as He has shown Himself in history and nature. I love the part about miracles gravitating toward the people who are waiting.
25. XII. 1993
For a miracle, take one shepherd’s sheepskin, throw
in a pinch of now, a grain of long ago,
and a handful of tomorrow. Add by eye
a little chunk of space, a piece of sky,
and it will happen. For miracles, gravitating
to earth, know just where people will be waiting,
and eagerly will find the right address
and tenant, even in a wilderness.
Or if you’re leaving home, switch on a new
four-pointed star, then, as you say adieu,
to light a vacant world with steady blaze
and follow you forever with its gaze.
-Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), Russian-born poet,
winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987
Oh, this is a good one! I like the word picture of the miracle finding those who are waiting for them — the right address, even in a wilderness. (better than Santa!) Thanks, Gretchen.
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I like that!
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…forever gaze… I will just meditate on that ..
A hot day in September is really a very fine day on which to find a Nativity poem.
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