My friend Tony has published ten poems in the first seven days of 2012. I’m falling behind. So I’m taking his challenge to write more poetry. Like, right now.
Melchior and Gaspar are practical:
gold and frankincense are gifts for the future.
Of Balthazar’s gift, they’re more critical:
myrrh washes corpses, cleans doctor’s suture,
preserves Osiris. A magician’s gift
ought to terrify first, then bring delight.
This present’s label bears riskier drift:
A painful end, a tomb, and endless night.
Yet stars do not fall. In due time they set,
to wait their turn in Sun’s too-bright shadow.
The stars burn at all times, though we forget
When lounging at noon in summer meadow.
Bathazar knows eternity is now,
and to that deep truth even gods must bow.
[…] other years, I’ve produced a hymn for the Three Kings, and a sonnet, and a full-scale painting of them. But this year I returned to a style of animation that I admired […]
[…] frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child in Bethlehem of Judea. This is a hymn to them, (as opposed to a sonnet) as witnesses and greeters of Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a […]
[…] is Perihelion, and tomorrow is Epiphany. The links connect to two earlier poems I’ve written about those days. I note that […]
[…] is the feast of the three kings, or Epiphany. The vulgate translation of the bible uses the word “magi”, meaning Persian […]
[…] at around 10pm, the star Capella was at midheaven, and I wrote a poem for that. And tomorrow is epiphany, and a few years ago I wrote a poem for that. It’s a regular poetry […]
[…] year ago tomorrow I wrote this poem about the Three Kings. I thought at the time, it was pretty good, and I’m surprised that it’s gotten less […]