Poetry for Winter and Advent: "Early Frost"

Over the next few weeks I’m going to point out a few poems that might help to get you thinking during this season of the year, both in nature and in the church. Whether you’re a preacher or a hearer, hopefully these poems spark some reflection and meditation on God’s works, once again, both in nature and in the church.

“Early Frost” by Scott Cairns

This morning the world’s white face reminds us
that life intends to become serious again.
And the same loud birds that all summer long
annoyed us with their attitudes and chatter
silently line the gibbet of the fence a little stunned,
chastened enough.

They look as if they’re waiting for things
to grow worse, but are watching the house,
as if somewhere in their dim memories
they recall something about this abandoned garden
that could save them.

The neighbor’s dog has also learned to wake
without exaggeration. And the neighbor himself
has made it to his car with less noise, starting
the small engine with a kind of reverence. At the window
his wife witnesses this bleak tableau, blinking
her eyes, silent.

I fill the feeders to the top and cart them
to the tree, hurrying back inside
to leave the morning to these ridiculous
birds, who, reminded, find the rough shelters,
bow, and then feed.

The coming of winter can often impress a sense of foreboding: dark days, darker nights, cold, lifeless earth—”life intends to become serious again.” The coming of winter can often reinforce the need for memory, humility, and hope.

These three virtues are especially embodied by the birds. The birds vaguely recall this place where help can be found. Lining “the gibbet of the fence… chastened,” they recognize what winter would mean for them without such help. And they look to the place from where their help comes. Even the last few lines bring all three together: “these ridiculous / birds, who, reminded, find the rough shelters, / bow, and then feed.” Memory. Humility. Hope.

Within the church, we have Advent, also calling us to the same. We remember our Lord’s promises of the Old Testament, as well as His promises to be with us now and to return in glory. We heed Advent’s somber call to repent and humble ourselves before the Lord. And we look forward to greet our Savior King who comes now and is coming again.

And you preachers, don’t neglect to “fill the feeders to the top.” For you in particular, the memory of our Lord’s sure words can impart the humility and hope you need to endure what can be a trying season. You need what He provides, so that in turn you can feed those “ridiculous birds.” There’s no time like Advent, for pastors and people, to gather at the Lord’s altar, “bow, and then feed.”

Claude Monet’s The Magpie

Let me offer one more recommendation for a November/early winter poem: “November” by Phyllis McGinley. You can listen to it HERE. Its wit and wisdom should help to discern the “brief enchantment in her smile,” hidden by this rather severe season.

Source: Scott Cairns, “Early Frost” from The Translation of Babel (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1990)