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Waiting
by
William Everett


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We are waiting, truly waiting
             for warming sun,
             dissolving rain
                        to offer up the snow to sky,
                        to open up the road to town
                        bring human faces to our door.
Advent has overturned our Christmas,
            trapped our cozy expectations in the ice,
            revealed the real time of human beings,
            while down below the crowd goes shopping,
            turning fervently the wheels of Christmas,
            spinning future into past.
Not exactly looking for the baby in the wrappings,
            voice drowned out in silent night,
            and yet we find him,
            yes, our Jesus, like a Russian doll,
                           the one with Nordic face,
                           no, underneath, the hillbilly Jew,
                           no, the farm boy from the Galilee,
                           the Yeshua,
                           the Yahweh-saves,
                           the one who never really was in Bethlehem,
                           the ancient wandering hope,
                           the tiny face a distant star whose earth we still can't see,
What we are waiting for in ice and snow.

 

Copyright 2009 by William Johnson Everett.
Used with the author's permission.


 

 

William Everett is a writer, woodworker, and liturgist. A retired professor of Christian ethics, he lives in Waynesville, North Carolina. William's first post-academic book was an "eco-historical" novel, Red Clay, Blood River, exploring the connections between America's Trail of Tears and South Africa's "Great Trek." His first volume of poetry, Turnings: Poems of Transformation, was followed by a volume of reflections, Sawdust and Soul: A Conversation about Woodworking and Spirituality. Two books about worship, including William's poetic liturgies, will be published in the fall of 2024. Learn more about him and his work at www.WilliamEverett.com, where he journals regularly.

          

 

 


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