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Poem: “Prepare Sunday–Second Sunday in Advent”

Prepare Sunday–Second Sunday in Advent

Prepare the geography of your soul
For the caller of every ewe,
The shepherd of verdant proclamations:
Water the wastelands of unforgiveness
With torrential tears
See dust turn to dew.
Level the mountains of peaked pride
So they become grazing fields
Feeding the least and hungriest of these,
All those you have outcasted, spurned.
Smooth out the crags and cracks of your words
Feel the balm of God’s breath in your repentance.
Go to the Jordan on the other side of your doubts
And be baptized in a font of faith
Hasten all these preparations and then
Wait and watch for one with untied sandal straps
Coming to embrace you.

Philip C. Kolin
6 December 2011


Philip C. Kolin, Professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi, has published four books of poems, including Deep Wonder: Poems (Grey Owl Press, 2000) and, most recently, A Parable of Women: Poems (Yazoo River Press, 2009). More than 200 of his poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in such journals as Christian Century, America, St. Austin Review, Christianity and Literature, Michigan Quarterly Review, Windhover, Seminary Ridge Review, Louisiana Literature, Blue Collar Review, St. Anthony Messenger, South Carolina  Review, etc. Kolin is also the founding editor of Vineyards: A Journal of Christian Poetry (www.vineyardspoetry.com) .  He was educated by the Jesuits and the Dominicans and considers St. Joseph his patron.