Aspiciens a longe
I look from afar. We stand in darkness.
A people in exile, shall we hear good news,
Who, toward midnight, in mid-winter, sing?

Sing words to call a light out of the darkness
To thaw dulled earth, to unfold her fairest bud;
Our song holds faith that the Word will be made flesh.

Now we bear candles Eastward, bear them into
Inviolate dark the Word should occupy:
Light disembodied swells the sanctuary,

Where an old dream is mimed, without conviction,
Over again. I look from afar. Our sung words
Are herald angels, and they announce His name,

But lay no fleshly mantle on the King,
The One Word. And yet, in the song's rising
Is rapture, and dayspring in my mind's dark:
...