What's Tony Thinking

A Poem for Today, Advent III

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For our Advent III poetry I turn again to Diane Tucker’s terrific collection, “Forty New O Antiphons: One Winter.” As I mentioned last week O Antiphons have long been sung in the church during Advent e.g. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Each one contains a name for Christ and a call to God to break into the world. Here are three more from Tucker:

O Lover of the homeless and the addict,
never let us rest, respectable and clean,
assured that we are “not like those people.”
Show us the homelessness of our cold hearts.
Show us our own “acceptable” addictions.
So turn our souls to loving those you love
with your holy love, which is our true Home.

O Lord of all the failing and forgetting,
may peace come down on all who have dementia.
Preserve, in age, their humour and their hearts.
Be with newly nameless sons and daughters.
Fill the grieving with your everlasting Name.
May all that’s lost leave space for re-creation:
rest and reflection, silent hours, and song.

O Lord who spread the silver on the salmon,
you sculpted sleek the dolphin and the whale.
What joy the otter and the seal’s play bring you,
the eagle’s dive, the cormorant’s spread wings.
All these you raise beside the glinting inlet
and fill them full of fish your own hands hatched.
We sing with thanks your love for sea and shore!

And I share another painting of mine, which has a bit of an Advent feel (at least to me). It was inspired by a book cover for one of Louise Penny’s wonderful mysteries. As her fans know, all her mysteries are set in “Three Pines,” a small town in Canada (Ontario I believe, although it could be Quebec). If you don’t  know Penny’s books, I recommend them. Her humane works explore the life’s complexities while weaving compelling tales. I think I’ve painted three firs rather than three pines, but whatever!

 

 

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