Advent Sonnets: Joy
Week 3 of a Poetry Series
Welcome to the third week of four posts in a series of Advent poems! I have the pleasure and honor of teaming up with my friend Zane Paxton to deeply reflect on the coming of our Lord through language and form. These sonnets were produced in hopes that they would lead you into a loving remembrance of Christ’s first arrival and that God would, in George Herbert’s words, “Furnish and deck my soul, that Thou mayst have / A better lodging, than a rack, or grave.”1
Chara - From the perspective of Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-45
An Acrostic Sonnet by Noah Bartley
O chosen mother of my Lord and King, Unmatched in blessedness among all men: Rejoice! For he who grows within in me springs, Jumping for joy at his womb-cushioned kin. One leap and that prophetic silence broke! You bear, O Mary, long-awaited yield, Creating He who forms and shapes the oak Or all that sprouts within the fertile field. My son’s prophetic, Spirit-kindled leap Proclaims the pulsing joy that we will hold. Living within you now is Joy so deep, Even the darkest sorrows shine like gold. The Lord has come with tiny, quickened feet; Embodied Joy will soon make ours complete!
Advent III
by Zane Paxton
Our wild, untamed; un-making creation To slowly stay and sink from sorrows sleep. But look! Oh look! Let land and living leap To watchfully greet, renewed formation. Indeed, a birth—Divine Incarnation. Rejoice, rejoice, receive and let Him reap A world of wonder, waiting. Then we'll weep To meet the man who brings our salvation. Delight, do we, in seeing He our King Be born to lay in humble hay. A boy, Who comes to make, remakes in us to bring A glee of triumph over Satan's ploy. Come see and rise, in jubilation sing, With thrill, a song, to bless our Lord of Joy.
This poem was generated by the author’s human mind with zero AI / LLM involvement.
1
George Herbert, Christmas (I)
Thank you David! Hard to resist that "leap" theme when talking about joy. I really appreciate your thoughtful reading.
Once again, very well done poems for the Sunday of Advent by Noah Bartley and Zane Paxton. I especially like how Noah brings in John the Baptist’s leap in his mother Elizabeth’s womb, and how Zane relates this leap in his own poem to a leaping within our own selves at meeting Jesus. Once again, a great pairing of poems to celebrate our liturgical March through Advent.