What Do We See, What Do We Hear? What Do We Do?
Now we wait breath abated, time stopped –
a moment in a dark time, more darkness encroaching,
all creatures of creation listening as if for a clear
yes or no.
What do we hear? What do we see?
an abandoned shelter? – maybe a barn
trough formed of wood, emptied of fragrant hay
absent – the lowing of creatures
absent – the longing cry silenced in the infertile womb
absent – the tiny translucent sphere ignited
to bear witness to beauty divine?
Selah
In that place of that other time what did they know?
Did creation not give them soul, heart, body, mind?
Could they not see what loomed ahead visible – almost –
in the world’s gloom?
From what depth of fear fled the Nazarene maiden
to Judea to her cousin of the Family of Jacob;
from what source leaped Light in her womb as the
women embraced? Were they in their right minds?
Did they not hear the dissonant note in the
minor chord sound of the sublime music?
Selah
When we wait, as must be, being human and
of our own nature among all creatures of all creation
waiting for the time being, “the most trying time of all”
will we dispose of the tree and its lights as if all is already
over-and-done-with for the last time? Will we waken?
Will we see the corona or only the eclipse?
Will we see a clear yes or no, black or white?
In our longing can we waken to receive the great mystery
of Love’s revelation?
O Magnum Mysterium!
Can we, will we, bless the dark side of light? Will we hear
the beauty of hope in the synesthesia of colors in celestial
music sounding in the starry night?
Selah
Notes: Stanza four remembers WH Auden’s poem, “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio c 1944;
“O Magnum Mysterium”, a medieval nativity chant that expresses the wonderment of the animals as they gaze on the Christ child.
Margie Dimoplon
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