Before they set out, met <br />to start their long hard journey from that East, <br />they knew their tasks, their gifts <br />to those whose very language, metaphor: <br /> <br />three gifts to speak of soul’s eternal life <br />about to be refreshed in human life: <br />gold for the soul’s first task, <br />resplendent in reflection of All that’s divine; <br /> <br />frankincense, for the soul’s gift to survey <br />All above and all below as One; <br />myrrh, that preserves the state and memory <br />of the passing body, servant of the soul; <br /> <br />these are on their way to Him; horsehooves <br />now ringing sharp on flint; now sighing into sand; <br />stars in a velvet winter night <br />telling of three dominions and cosmographies; <br /> <br />a fortnight’s journey yet to mark the lifetime, <br />waytime, truthtime, held <br />in tomorrow’s birth in scent of hay; <br /> <br />divine moment; that in human life must yet hold <br />an empty cave as tomb; a pile of clothes still warm; <br />dawnlight on the garden, reflected as from gold; <br />lingering, the scent of myrrh and frankincense.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/and-we-three-kings/
