The Sublime Roundabout

Songs in the heavens Reaching through the night sky Across the eternal dark To fill the immensity of space With light Like stars glittering in the Cold winter's sky The promise of glory and Radiance all around The King is born, they sing A Savior! In the City of David He lies not in marbled halls or On pillows of softest down But in a manger And while kings and wise men Would seek his face Tonight, and each night He appears to the lowest As angels sing His love So, when I feel the lowest When my heart is full of pain Or sorrow, regret, or suffering I think of the Child born long ago That He came, for me My finest, eternal Friend.

What light! That comes From angel lips Like distilled dews On parched ground drips Like honeyed joys Sweet and pure Like sunny days Whose memories endure So comes the words Sweet, dulcet tones Bringing grace Into my home Thank you, my angel.

Too long ago to imagine The process began Atomic cohesiveness brings particles together In super-heated geothermal reactions A bubble forms Viscous liquids separate and roil Mixing, dividing, combining again Atoms alike one another Grab on to each other A heavy, dense metal Fluid and flowing Begins to make its way up To the surface Squeezing its way between Fractures in milky white quartz Painting the surface of the rock With an unseen brilliance Waiting to be found And then, it happens Out of the darkness A light shines on this brilliant, yellow, soft metal Coming from a star From a place similar to where this metal was made Billions of years ago In a nuclear crucible The metal is taken And fired again Melted down, boiled To remove impurities And leave only the gold And you, and your soul Are much the same Made in a heavenly, brilliant place Yet coming from the earth we call Mother Find yourself refined through the life And the fires we pass through

Drifting wisps of white and gray Slip past my window The world enveloped in quiet chill The heavens touch the earth below Sounds are harsh from unseen sources Trees loom brooding and dark The sound of the mourning dove echoes And on my heart makes its mark Somewhere the sun shines bright Somewhere life is happy and warm Yet here, wrapped in fog, The world offers me no charm Just gray and drab, dank and chill My mind, my heart, my soul Like my eyes are filled with gloom Here in the grip of winter's hold Neither fully alive nor dead either Living life in a kind of ether.