"Christmas Evening" by Geoffrey Philp

Twelve Poems and A Story for Christmas describes the journey of a newlywed couple, Mary and Joseph, to their ancestral homeland where they are to be registered in a census decreed by a tyrant.

Mary is pregnant and Joseph knows that the child she is carrying is not his. As they travel through the harsh landscape, they are joined by strangers who have been summoned by dreams, visions, and supernatural events to bear witness to a child whose birth they are told is destined to change the course of human history.

Christmas Evening

Joseph still couldn’t understand
what the mystery was all about.
He’d been there when the contractions
shook her small frame, when she wailed,
and dug her fingers into his arm—called out
his name, then her water broke.
He slept beside her on the straw, waited for hours
until the screaming child came into the world,
gazed deep into his eyes, then placed him
between his mother’s breasts, soothing
his cries, and while she was falling
asleep, cleaned them up, cut the cord.

Now there were strangers from all over
the countryside coming into the cave
filling the air with more raw animal smells,
shepherds, sinners, and other neer-do-wells,
who were either drunk or mad,
claiming they’d seen visions
of heavenly hosts of angels, bright
as the moon over the Sea of Galilee.
Joseph shook his head, rocked the manger,
still waiting for the miracle that he’d been promised
when God held his finger and gurgled.

From Twelve Poems and A Story for Christmas.

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I'll be taking a break from blogging to be with my family and (non-virtual) friends. I'll be back on January 12, and I've got great things planned for 2009!

Until then, give thanks to all who have stopped by, subscribed, bought a book, commented on or linked to a post. It has been a pleasure to share some time with you and I hope the words from either this blog or my books have brought a little light, a little joy into your lives.

Have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!