I Await

“Expectans Expectavi”, by Anne Ridler

The candid freezing season again:

Candle and cracker, needles of fir and frost;

Carols that through the night air pass, piercing

The glassy husk of heart and heaven;

Children’s faces white in the pane, bright in the tree-light.

I await – Expectavi

And the waiting season again,

That begs a crust and suffers joy vicariously:

In bodily starvation now, in the spirit’s exile always.

O might the hilarious reign of love begin, let in

Like carols from the cold

The lost who crowd the pane, numb outcasts into welcome.

Source: Collected Poems, Anne Ridler. Manchester: Carcanet, 1997. Found on the Education for Justice website.