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George David ClarkDecember 06, 2016
Adoration of the Christ Child, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, c. 1515
Sometimes it’s not the infant’s holy face
 
that awes us, but the teeming blitz of cherubs
 
wielding horns and lutes to fill the Arab
 
stable with their overweening praise.
 
If neither Mary nor the shepherds glance
 
their way, remember that, while putti bow
 
the beams and swell their cheeks in this tableau,
 
such hosts are rarely seen and sing in silence.
 
Still, we need directions to which manger
 
holds the Christ. We want melodic wings
 
to tell us God has come. We usher them
 
inside and close our eyes to hear. The danger
 
then is that we crown the worship king:
 
hymn blunts our prayer until we look at Him.
More: Poems
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