Epiphany

Epiphany by Janet Mackenzie of BridgeBuilding icons.

The Journey Of The Magi

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kiking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

T.S. Eliot

And for a completely different perspective!

The Queens Came Late

The Queens came late, but the Queens were there

With gifts in their hands and crowns in their hair.

They'd come, these three, like the Kings, from far,

Following, yes, that guiding star.

They'd left their ladles, linens, looms,

Their children playing in nursery rooms,

And told their sitters:

"Take charge! For this

Is a marvelous sight we must not miss!"

The Queens came late, but not too late

To see the animals small and great,

Feathered and furred, domestic and wild,

Gathered to gaze at a mother and child.

And rather than frankincense and myrrh

And gold for the babe, they brought for her

Who held him, a homespun gown of blue,

And chicken soup--with noodles, too-

And a lingering, lasting, cradle-song.

The Queens came late and stayed not long,

For their thoughts already were straining far-

Past manger and mother and guiding star

And a child aglow as a morning sun-

Toward home and children and chores undone.

-Norma Farber in When It Snowed That Night