The Star

It comes like He came

on the longest, darkest night

of the longest darkest year

proclaiming all

the glory of God and the

beauty of planets and suns.

 

The old gods have been

exiled to the sky

and their movements

are barely the echoes

of the Grand Breath.

 

Apollo and Selene

have long since danced and

and their brief kiss

eclipsed the day to night

prompting the Huemul

to seek the Araucaria’s shade,

the Hornero the Ceibo’s lower boughs.

 

The Geminis brushed the

skirt of Europa with fire

and Orion’s arrow

glowed brightly

in the harsh dark

winter air in anticipation

of their passing.

 

Each score years,

in the nadir of winter,

Jupiter and Saturn

form a conjunction

barely the width

of three full moons

in the southwest sky

that shone the brightest

two millennium past

in the Bethlehem dark

and blessed the child

gazing up at

His Father’s creation.

 

Would be tyrants

may clumsily plot

the overthrows of countries

but the stars remain

fixed, determined

steady and unmovable

to even the strongest

push of Hercules

and indifferent to

the troubles and strife

beneath them.

 

Yet The Breath

impels the planets

to revolve around

a million suns

and hope is greater

than those who angst

over tomes that proclaim

the end of everything

and the prophets

that declare

the end of all time is nigh.

 

The barred owl who resides

in the old knotted elm,

who persists to live in the hole

despite the attempts of crows

to chase it away

knows that the generosity

of every inhale and exhale

is but the revolution of a

breath greater than itself,

one with no beginning or end,

just the explosion

of the original blessing.

 

Jupiter and Saturn will always

revel in their holy conjunction

and take delight whenever

the sun and moon

breathlessly play tag

with each other’s shadow

knowing that its light will

shine score years

over a thousand Bethlehems.

 

 

 

Notes:

 

Selene is the Greek moon goddess.

 

The recent lunar eclipse was the brightest in both Argentina and Chile.

 

Heumel and Araucaria are deer and tree

 species of Chile.

 

Hornero and Ceibo are bird and tree species of Argentina