Advent poetry

by Maggie Jackson

As Advent began this year I felt I needed something to keep me focused and not drawn into the clamour of pre-Christmas commercialism. I set myself the challenge of writing a poem a day – realising after day one that this was going to be too ambitious unless I worked with some restrictions.

I turned to the format of writing haiku (using the basic structure of simplicity, with three lines each of 5, 7 and 5 syllables), and this then resulted in a discipline of writing a triad of haiku each day to reflect and comment on aspects of my own life, events in the world (reported in news broadcasts etc), and using the week-day readings for Advent from scripture.

I have kept the Sunday reflections to free verse rather than haiku. This has become a creative process which is manageable in daily life. The first week of poems is below. I hope other people might also find it helpful to try this interweaving as a prayerful exercise.
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Sunday November 29th

ADVENT

It was the wildest of days.
Gales and torrents of rain.
The road turned to river.
No-one passed by.
The rowan flung down the
last of its berries.

I kept watch all morning,
straining to hear the clunk
of the rusting latch and
footsteps running to the door,
the family arriving
in spite of the storm.

I kept watch all day,
hearing only the screaming wind.
Yet no-one passed by,
no-one sought shelter.
Had I got the wrong day, or time?
Was it all too late, or too soon?

I had kept watch all year.
Too much to hope for, perhaps,
that the travellers should stop here.
But, as I turned from the window,
a blackbird perched on
the gate-post, unruffled
by the storm, so still,
as if carved from stone,
waiting, guarding the path,
ready to greet with song
the bearers of the fledgling God
who chooses to enter my home.

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Monday November 30th

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Tuesday December 1st

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Wednesday December 2nd

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Thursday December 3rd

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Friday December 4th

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Saturday December 5th

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