Icon: The Nativity
'tis the season
Χριστός γεννάται. Δοξάσατε.
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Icon: The Nativity
As you lean in, you'll surely apprehend
the tiny God is wrapped
in something more than swaddle. The God
is tightly bound within
His blesséd mother's gaze-her face declares
that she is rapt by what
she holds, beholds, reclines beholden to.
She cups His perfect head
and kisses Him, that even here the radiant
compass of affection
is announced, that even here our several
histories converge and slip,
just briefly, out of time. Which is much of what
an icon works as well,
and this one offers up a broad array
of separate narratives
whose temporal relations quite miss the point,
or meet there. Regardless,
one blithe shepherd offers music to the flock,
and-just behind him-there
he is again, and sore afraid, attended
by a trembling companion
and addressed by Gabriel. Across the ridge,
three wise men spur three horses
towards a star, and bowing at the icon's
nearest edge, these same three
yet adore the seated One whose mother serves
as throne. Meantime, stumped,
the kindly Abba Joseph ruminates,
receiving consolation
from an attentive dog whose master may
yet prove to be a holy
messenger disguised as fool. Overhead,
the famous star is all
but out of sight by now; yet, even so,
it aims a single ray
directing our slow pilgrims to the core
where all the stories meet,
the crux and hallowed cave and womb,
where crouched among these other
lowing cattle at their trough,
our travelers receive that creatured air and pray.
Copyright © 2001 Scott Cairns.
Used with permission of the author.