Wish I wrote it. But I have read it for years and loved it--probably better that way. If I had written it, it would be dedicated to you. See you at the Rose Bowl. -- Ludwig Aethelbert Urias


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To Tanya at Christmas

by Wendell Berry


Forgive me, my delight,
that grief and loneliness
have kept me. Though I come
to you in darkness, you are
companion of the light
that rises on all I know.

In the long night of the year
and of the spirit, God's birth
is met with simple noise.
Deaf and blind in division,
I reach, and do not find.
You show the gentler way:
We come to good by love;
our words must be made flesh.

And flesh must be made word
at last, our lives rise
in speech to our children's tongues.
They will tell how we once stood
together here, two trees
whose lives in annual sheddings
made their way into this ground,
whose bodies turned to earth
and song. The song will tell
how old love sweetens the fields.

# posted by Luis @ 4:05 PM