christmas dreams | three collages | ron reed

 


dream one | conception

God spoke.  
My own true love.
My chosen.
My handmaid 
has silence in her soul, untrammeled love.  

A time to be born.
Sudden dive by dream into reality.  

I felt
soft inward flutterings,  
the Life 
trembling through. 

Love blooms, 
bright and wild.  
Veiled in flesh,
Jesus begs to be born,  
yields Himself to lie in prison, 
in thee; 
Yea thou art now thy Maker's maker, 
and thy Father's mother;
Thou hast light in dark, 
and shuttest in little room
Immensity 
cloistered in thy dear womb.

He comes.


dream two | birth

She waits while over there he knocks.
No room.
The steaming dung of beasts, their cloudy breath.
She fought the burning in her eyes.  
The straw was cold, and snapped sounding each time 
her body rolled.  
Be strong as steel lest Joseph sense the pain you feel.
Blood strewn straw...  
Father be with us in the ripping dark.  
Her knotted string wet hair...  
Sweat from trembling lips...
He wrestles straining flesh  
To free the stubborn child
From clutching womb  
Pushing through  
Blood sweat groans  
A sword shall pierce  

An infant whimper in the dark.
The fresh born king  
bewails the warm womb lost,  
an earthly roar of flesh and blood;  
his hair curly black
eyes closed
His thin legs kick as Joseph
places him in Mary's arms.  
Small wonder...
Fingers of a little child uncurling...
The living water cupped at Mary's breast.

He comes.
Love's bloom, 
bright and wild. 

Unto us a child is born.
Unto us a son is given. 


dream three | angels

I dreamed I was
some bird or star  
fluttering in woods 
or lifted far above this inn.
The triumph of the skies,
wide, wheeling universe;  
Reeling Andromeda, 
the doubtful Magellanic clouds,
And all the silent dark light years unstrung between.  

A dream,
the dark silk of the sky
above the town of Bethlehem.

Lo!  

Like flares the angels came,  
Brilliant zones of white cold flame shatter this 
proud cracked place  
like a white blaze, lighting the air all around.  
That great arc of angels!  
See how their breath doth smoke.  
Burning men
In flight with singing star bursts from the hills.  
Voices dip and soar like doves;  

Fear not!
Glad tidings!
Great joy!

A Kingdom, like a bride adorned, descends.  
The reign of darkness ends.
He comes.
The wildest miracle of them all.

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