Note: Madeleine L'Engle is one of my favorite writers. I found her later in life through my friend Molly and read all of her young adult books as an adult. I then moved on to her work in memoir and her spiritual writing. In the last year I read Wrinkle in Time to the kids and fell in love all over again. She is also a poet, and I found this poem that I thought I would share. I admire how she writes about spirituality: she marries the power of faith with the realities of every day. And she does it beautifully.
The Risk of Birth (Christmas, 1973)
by Madeleine L’Engle
This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.
That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour & truth were trampled by scorn-
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.
When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn-
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
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