Noel Noel! Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

in the cold the starlight shines with more acuity
perhaps the angel wings are tipped in frost
and bending their harps to earth, their harps of gold
as the carol dreams even while we forget most of the words
we can
almost imagine that music lingering over over the hard earth
at the stringent outposts where the woolly sheep are guarded by semi outcasts.
the instant before the world seemed dark the age as well
till in another song like a winter rose
a child is born to set it right
and all the world is full of light
the faces ofwitnessing shepherds dazed transformed
into visages of gold
tear streaked and on the windy plains.
above, beyond the centuries of pain.

mary angela douglas 8 december 2020