And when his Lady Mother leans upon the crib... (Thomas Merton)

 When the white stars talk together like sisters

And when the winter hills

Raise their grand semblance in the freezing night,

Somewhere one window

Bleeds like the brown eye of an open force.

             

Hills, stars,

White starts that stand above the eastern stable.

             

Look down and offer Him

The dim adoring light of your belief,

Whose small Heart bleeds with infinite fire.

           

Shall not this Child

(When we shall hear the bells of His amazing voice)

Conquer the winter of our hateful century?

           

And when His Lady Mother leans upon the crib,

Lo, with what rapiers  

Those two loves fence and flame their brilliancy!

             

Here in this straw lie planned the fires

That will melt all our sufferings:

He is our Lamb, our holocaust!

             

And one by one the shepherds, with their snowy feet,

Stamp and shake out their hats upon the stable dirt,

And one by one kneel down to look upon their Life.

--Thomas Merton, A Christmas Card

Image source:  Ambrogio Bergognone, Madonna del Velo (1500s)
http://www.jesus-story.net/painting_birth_christ.htm

Poem source