Heart
A Curmudgeon Smiles
Photo By: Flickr/Creative Carol
We are waiting in fall’s balance of
color and decay, where one purple
pansy survives in rotting leaves.
Frost dusts the ground with silver.
Wax drips from three lavender candles.
The fourth is old rose.
We wait for the manger that holds
the sweet bud of deliverance.
Later His scars, bruises, His blood
must darken the earth; He must visit hell
but a Christmas birth—Praise God!—
can make even a curmudgeon smile.
So we wait—linger and pray, penitential
but joyful—for Christ to come with His
most pure light that will stream into
our Advent shades of purple.
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About the Author
A former English teacher, Helen Losse is the author of ten collections of poetry, including A Flower More Enduring (Main Street Rag, 2021). Her poems have been anthologized in Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina, and Kakalak 2014, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for a Best of the Net award. She is Poetry Editor Emeritus for The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature and a former Associate Poetry Editor for Kentucky Review. She is married and has two grown sons. A Christian her entire life, Helen entered the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday in 2015 to grow closer to Jesus.
Social Media links:
Blog: Windows Toward the World https://helenl.wordpress.com/
FB: https: https://www.facebook.com/HelenLosse/
MSR Bookstore: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product-tag/helen-losse/
