A Child of the Snows

a poem for Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas, my winter friends,

I pray you are all warm at home, resting in many blessings as we await the coming of the King tomorrow. I have little in the way of gifts these days, but I did want to share one of my favorite Christmas poems, today, on Christmas Eve. I have little to say about this great feast or season that other better writers have not already said, so this piece by the great GK Chesterton must suffice for my gift to you all this year. I find it quite appropriate too, given the frigid temperatures and consistent snow those of us in the north have had these past few days.

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A Child of the Snows

There is heard a hymn when the panes are dim,
And never before or again,
When the nights are strong with a darkness long,
And the dark is alive with rain.

Never we know but in sleet and in snow,
The place where the great fires are,
That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth
And the heart of the earth a star.

And at night we win to the ancient inn
Where the child in the frost is furled,
We follow the feet where all souls meet
At the inn at the end of the world.

The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red,
For the flame of the sun is flown,
The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,
And a Child comes forth alone.

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in statu viae,

Ryan