A Poem for the Beginning of Advent

This is so like November in New York. A magical time of the year: full of mystery, a little sad, pregnant with expectation.

Scel Lem Duib

Here's a song —
stags give tongue
winter snows
summer goes

High cold blow
sun is low
brief his day
seas give spray

Fern clumps redden
shapes are hidden
wildgeese raise
wonted cries

Cold now girds
wings of birds
icy time —
that's my rime.

Ninth-century, version — Flann O'Brien

In Shirley Toulson. (1993) The Celtic Year: A Celebration of Celtic Christian Saints, Sites and Festivals.Rockport, MA: Element Books, p. 43.