1490

Deep night and a chilly fold

Lambs are bleating, ewes are cold

Shepherds shiver in the dark

Sparrow sleeping, silent lark

Before the coming dawn.

Frost is creeping through the night

Silvered by the stars' pale light;

Wolves slink silent to their kill

Under the shadow of the hill

Before the coming dawn.

Is that the day warming the sky

Gilding clouds as they drift by?

No, for the night is hardly through

And there are many hours to go

Before the coming dawn.

See, see the light is growing fast

And the shepherds stand aghast

For high above an Angel sings

Hovering on silvered wings

Before the coming dawn.

Peace he brings to men on earth

Singing of a saviour's birth

God's love to all since time begun

Now revealed in his Son

As in the coming dawn.

Then let us sing to near and far

Alleluia, alleluia

For Love has come to all today

As will the coming dawn.

But we are hungry, we are tired

Bring us out some hot mince pies;

We are thirsty, we need wine

Or we'll come back another time

Before the coming dawn.

Brian Hick September 2015

©copyright Sally Hick 14.9.26

 1415

The first week of Advent

Time to mix the pud

Order up the turkey

And everything that's good.

The second week of Advent

Have you got the tree?

How about the presents

For Dot and Aunty B?

The third week of Advent

Panic setting in

Haven't done the  Christmas cards;

Oh, where will I begin?

The fourth week of Advent

Presents round the tree

All the food is in the fridge

Time for a G&T.

Christmas Eve, it's quiet

For the children are in bed

Midnight Mass on tele

And carrot by the shed.

Christmas Day is dawning

And suddenly you're here

With Angel voices calling

To put away all fear.

Brian Hick December 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 24.11.25

 1231

Christmas at Pissarro's for the Church Next Door

Sixteen hungry people wait while the wine is poured.

Everything's been ordered so that we can start -

As soon as we are seated - to satisfy each part.

Who has ordered mushrooms? How many for the trout?

Luckily we have a list so no one is in doubt

And by the time we've finished, with coffee or mint tea,

We've just time to put our feet up before we need to be

Seated in St Matthew's where, led by the Big Choir,

The annual carol service will warm us and inspire

Thoughts of peace and harmony, of friendships new begun

Till we all join with Tiny Tim, God Bless us, Everyone!

Brian Hick December 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 16.12.24

 1230

Merry Christmas? Maybe Scrooge was right

For by the time it comes, we've had enough

Of ho-ho-ho, mince pies and fairy lights.

Merry Christmas?

I wouldn't mind so much if all the guff

Were concentrated after bonfire night

But well before half-term the shops are stuffed

With all the rubbish they can't sell, and might

Be just the thing for auntie, though that's tough

When what she really wants is a new diet!

Merry Christmas?

Brian Hick December 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 13.12.24

 1226

Ad-vent

First Noel this year and Hark the Herald

But it's just an Advent Concert, not the blare

Of speakers down the supermarket aisles

Or buskers with faded tinsel in their hair.

If this were Christmas Eve I might not mind

But there's four weeks to go before the day

And hours and hours of adverts on the tele

All special offers and no need to pay

Until the new year, when the bills arrive,

The laptops on the blink and the wind blows

Through every chink to chill you to the bone,

Reminding you of all your ails and woes.

            And just as things calm down, you realise

            You've only six months till the next mince pies!

Brian Hick Advent 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 2.12.24