Advent Sonnet Three

A candle flickers in the wind that blows
With fury, and with frigid teeth that gnaw
Away at skin and bone; the tree that grows
Outside my window creaks and groans, the maw
Of winter wrapped around its soul.  The light
That day by day grows dimmer as the wick,
Aglow with flame, fights on against the might
Of icy rain and snow that falls in thick
White layers on the ground.  The sun has set;
An endless night has fallen on our lives
As sin-black evil taints us.  We have met
Our deepest fear, the death of soul it gives.
But even in the dark our light shines on -
A hope to face our night until the dawn.

Advent Sonnet Two

O rend the sky and dwell with us, o Lord -
The old refrain, the tired plea we make
In all our weary moanings o'er the sword
Of hostil times - old enemies that take
Away our joy and sense of You.  And in
The absence that we face, we look to see,
But cannot see, the love we feel within
Our quickened beating hearts - the joyful glee -
When you, our God, are with us in the mess
And brokenness that we call life.  With sad,
Pathetic lamentation, we address
The hole we find; in it we are made glad
For in the hidden places You do dwell,
The secret space is where we are made well.

Advent Project - Day One

You know what makes blogging hard?  Being a full-time student and working four days a week. But, to try and get myself back into the swing of blogging regularly, I'm going to share here my Advent project - a sonnet a day for all of Advent.


This is the age of waiting and of hope,
Yet in the darkness there is no way out
But to walk in blinded steps and to grope
With eager expectation past the doubt.
This is the day of wonder and of fear
Of all the grumbling noises in the dark
That scratch and tear and bite the mindful ear
Which strains to find the song of distance larks.
This is the hour of once and future pasts,
The present gloom a curtain from the light.
We stumble on in fearful pain that lasts
What looks to weary eyes an endless night.
But in the inky midnight of our way
Will come a dawn, the birth of endless day.

Guy Fawkes Day

It is indeed the 5th of November - but no Gunpowder Treason and Plot this year.  Instead, there are other protests - against our corporate banking institutions who take our money, use it to fund the oppression of the poor (Sub-prime mortgage crisis, anyone?), waste it on increasingly byzantine speculative financial deals (see point #2 again), and then demand to be bailed out with our tax money.  Thousands of people are pulling their money from their banking institutions today and moving them to community banks, where their money can be used for local investment projects.


If this were happening even a month later, I would be joining them...and probably will join them here in a few weeks when loan money clears.  If we're going to sit around and talk about how awful these big corporate interests are, and how they contribute to the economic wreck that is life in the U.S. now by continuing to plunder the general public in the name of increasing the already bulging profit margins of the wealthiest people in this nation, then the very least we can do is take the reasonable steps that we can to guarantee that our money stays out of this process to the largest extent possible.  Easiest way - don't do your banking with Bank of America, Chase, etc.  Take your money out, and find a local bank or credit union.


I will, however, be joining the movement physically - there are nationwide protests happening in front of Bank of America, and I'll be joining the one in the Loop later today.  It is no longer the time to sit back and complain about the way things are from the comfort of home; it is time to, collectively, put our money where our mouths are and join in the resistance.  If we are going to criticize the emergent U.S. American oligarchy - the corporate class and their marriage to the bloated political establishment - then we have no choice but to craft an alternative vision by living it out in our homes, in our churches, and on our streets.  Now is the time, now is the moment - "My heart shall sing of the day you bring - let the fires of justice burn!  Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn!"