Tag Archives: poems laments

laments, poems

14 Oct

the risk of birth, is a selected book of Christ-poems given to me, the first is the title poem, ‘The Risk of Birth’ 
by Madeleine L’EngleThis 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;
Honor & truth were trampled to scorn—
Yet here did the Savior 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….

A baby’s birth cry is a lament for what they leave, lost. Paul Valery said that prose to poetry is as walking to dancing. Laments in poems, in songs, are dances with words. They are cries of emotions. Laments.