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Advent 1202

Donald P. Goodman III

Version 1.0 (05 Dec 1202)

At the time before dawn, dark of night's all around; the fair sun seems ne'er ready to rise,

and the stars are conceal'd behind dense, blacken'd clouds, and the moon has departed the skies,

and the air all around is a nightmarish black which no man can e'er pierce with his eyes,

like a curtain or veil has descended on all, blinding all, even damp'ning our cries.

Who can hope to keep walking the straight, narrow path when such darkness is clouding our sight?

Who can push through the challenges everywhere found, and endure the fatigue of the fight?

Who can still direct others the way they should go when we can't tell our left from our right?

Who can cut through the curtains of darkness? What man can make shine where there isn't a light?

When all life is declining and dying, and all of the green has departed the land,

and the warmth is replac'd by the frozen, and ice across field, town, and forest is spann'd,

and the end of all things is before us; the dark and the cold for forever's at hand;

in that day, who can hope to stand up? who can hope? who can e'er have the strength to withstand?

Then a light all at once pierces clear through the dark, spreading wide in all ways under sun,

a light shining and blinding, so bright that a man can't believe what has clearly been done,

and despite the new light, still can't see any farther than ere the new light had begun,

and as blind as before, just denies that there's light, and continues to live like there's none.

And the light sends out warmth in the cold, such a warmth as will spread everywhere the light goes,

but the cold has been there for so long, the warmth burns, and so many its spread do oppose;

to endure that great burning which banishes cold, to endure all the light's many woes,

is so difficult many remain cold and blind, and avoid all the good light bestows.

In the depths of the winter, the candles ignite, and their light and their warmth now expands

in a bright, shining ring; we're awash in its glow, which enlightens and thaws many lands;

giving sight to our murky and darken'd mind's eyes, giving strength to our legs and our hands;

and with eyes that can see, and our thaw'd, strengthen'd limbs, in this warmth and this light hope e'er stands.

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