Where Would the Wise Men Otherwise Be?

Thanks to poet Kim Addonizio for presenting the writing invitation to start with a pronoun, then supply its noun. And thank God for being the Great "I," claimed by the proper noun Emmanuel.

Merry Christmas to you, from TheHighCalling Team.

Ms. Addonizio Advises Me
on a Christmas Poem

She said to give us a pronoun,
but I gave two. How could I
give any less
when facing a day like Christmas;
even Noah knew
to take two camels
(where would the wise men otherwise be?),
two donkeys
(Mary needed one to bring the child to birth
and the child, when grown, needed its foal
to take him to old Jerusalem,
where turtledove pairs
would no longer do,
so he freed them to fly to the trees,
and would join them soon
on a hand-hewn limb,
frail nest
suspended
between two thieves—
a him and a he,
two pronouns without proper
nouns to claim them.
They might as well have been
a you,
a me).

Poem by L.L. Barkat, author of InsideOut: Poems and God in the Yard: Spiritual Practice for the Rest of Us.

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• christmas poem
• Christmas service material

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