Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Begin Again: A Poem for Avent and the Beginning of the Christian New Year



Begin Again
(A poem for Advent and the beginning of the Christian Year)

Not like the world is
this marking of time
for in our too many appointments
we find ourselves lost
in a desert of
dates and cluttered
calendars

We need another way to find
out when and where
we are
So some long ago faith
ancestors created a
different way to tell time;
a beginning before
the outside world’s
beginning

So this New Year greets us
from some wilderness
where a strange voice bids
us to prepare not
for confetti but for
repentance

“Begin again,” is the invitation
from a calendar of faith
that asks us to wait
and wonder rather than
rush toward a tomorrow
that is not yet

The time that lies ahead can
be but a marking of days
or
could it be a
journey of the soul
seeking a path
rather than a paved over
toll road
whose price is
too high

Advent’s call is to again begin
with a keen awareness
that life is not marked by
numbers on a folded page
but is full of
days that are gifts
from the creator
of all time

Jody Seymour
Advent 2017

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