Today is a mild and gray rainy day in Seattle. Many people think it's like this every day, but it isn't. When the sun shines, I have never seen any place more beautiful than the Pacific Northwest. Really. But today, we live in a stereotype. Wet roads. Slow drivers. Lots of traffic. And an oppressive darkness threatens to rob us of the slivers of gray that passes for light.
Entering the church, I looked up and saw even our bright rainbow banners struggling against the steel of the sky and the naked trees on the corner. I thought of Denise Levertov's poem "Candlemas," and it helped brighten the world up just a little.
"Candlemas"
-Denise Levertov
With certitude
Simeon opened
ancient arms
to infant light.
Decades
before the cross, the tomb
and the new life,
he knew
new life.
What depth
of faith he drew on,
turning illumined
towards deep light.
With certitude
Simeon opened
ancient arms
to infant light.
Decades
before the cross, the tomb
and the new life,
he knew
new life.
What depth
of faith he drew on,
turning illumined
towards deep light.
As the dark presses in and the days get even shorter, I hope I "turn illumined towards deep night."
This poem can be found in Denise Levertov's book "Breathing the Water."
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