Advent
by Thomas Merton
Charm with your stainlessness these winter
nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly vivider in the fiery dark,
you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!
The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry
earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.
Charm with your stainlessness these nights in
Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed
by starlight.
Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over
all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets' stately setting,
Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!
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