Pity the Dark
(after Kathleen Jamie)
Pity the dark,
Where Jesus lay,
Traduced by variable day,
Seamless velvet
Without a mark.
Then light
Announces cruelty,
A surrogate for being free,
The lottery
Of sight.
Pride in the glow
Smearing the sky,
No peace from feverish activity,
The soul withering awry
Bereft of the soil
To grow.
Pity the dark
Where Jesus lay
As we wait for our happy day
When Mary lays him in the hay.
His is the only
Way of seeing,
The inner light,
Not outward being
The steady Spirit,
Not the sunlit lonely.