Advent
by Patrick Kavanagh
We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child’s soul, we’ll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.
And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.
O after Christmas we’ll have no need to go searching
For the difference that sets an old phrase burning-
We’ll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning
Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.
And we’ll hear it among decent men too
Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,
Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.
Won’t we be rich, my love and I, and
God we shall not ask for reason’s payment,
The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges
Nor analyse God’s breath in common statement.
We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages
Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour-
And Christ comes with a January flower.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- The Song of the Sons by Rudyard Kipling
- Константин Бальмонт – Море – вечное стремленье, горы – царственный покой
- Welcome To My World © by Shannen Wrass
- “Why should I, from this long and losing strife ” poem – Alfred Austin
- The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath
- Monday by Vishü Rita Krocha
- Bees A-Zwarmen by William Barnes
- Омар Хайям – Если гурия страстно целует в уста
- Encounter In The Chestnut Avenue by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On John Dove, Innkeeper:
- Winter Apples by Tatiana Gusarova, translated by Fledermaus
- Angels by Russell Edson
- Villion’s Ballade Of Good Counsel, To His Friends Of Evil Life poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Calm is all Nature as a Resting Wheel. by William Wordsworth
- he_who_creates_re_creates_himself.html
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).