{"id":10710,"date":"2016-12-02T03:30:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T10:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?p=10710"},"modified":"2016-11-21T17:40:14","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T00:40:14","slug":"poetry-friday-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: “Advent”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Watts,<\/p>\n

Of course you\u2019ve heard of \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o.\u201d And you know that it refers to the Pacific Ocean\u2019s warming spells, which can cause heavy rains and even cyclones in the tropics. But did you know that El Ni\u00f1o (Spanish for \u201cthe boy\u201d) is so named because it occurs around Christmas time? And did you know that there\u2019s a sister phenomenon, \u201cLa Ni\u00f1a\u201d\u2014a cooling ocean effect that also causes major climate events? In her poem \u201cAdvent,\u201d Ava Leavell Haymon takes these climatological facts and brilliantly conflates them with the coming of the Child which we await during the Advent season. \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o crawls in the manger, time runs out \/ El\u00a0 Ni\u00f1o rocks himself dry on the edge of a continent.\u201d Then \u201cthe weather channel shows us rain \/ Angels proclaim in vain\u2026\u201d This Boy\u2019s coming will not evoke the sweet sentiments of Christmas cards. No, it brings cosmological turbulence: \u201dComets snuff out in dirty skies: Lovers of chaos, \/ computers roll back their zero eyes\u00a0 The trumpet cries\u2026\u201d We pray to Los Ni\u00f1os to \u201cspare us,\u201d but their answer\u2014 \u201cWe have come for the children\u201d \u2014 has a sinister undercurrent. That \u201cfor\u201d is intentionally ambiguous. It could mean \u201cfor the sake of,\u201d which is the usual Christmas message. But \u201ccome for\u201d could also mean \u201cto take the children away,\u201d which a killing cyclone will certainly do. Here is a poem that makes us think twice (or three times or more) about what Advent brings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Peggy Rosenthal<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Advent<\/strong>\u00a0by Ava Leavall Haymon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o slips across latitudes, rises dripping from the ocean
\nFrom seafloor mud, El Ni\u00f1o brings up the secrets of childhood
\nEl Ni\u00f1o crawls in the manger, time runs out
\nEl Ni\u00f1o rocks himself dry on the edge of a continent
\nPrairies of wheat go unpollinated, there is rumor
\nEl Ni\u00f1o is killing the honeybees<\/p>\n

The water turns cold, La Ni\u00f1a follows her twin
\nWindowpanes darken, the weather channel shows us rain
\nAngels proclaim in vain above unseasonal cloud cover
\nLa Ni\u00f1a lines up her hurricanes in alphabetical order
\nFloodwaters announce her coming The rich bribe airlines
\nwhile the poor push children into branches of trees<\/p>\n

The Ni\u00f1os hear their names on the news in every language
\nThe Ni\u00f1os bankrupt distant cities with mudslides
\nComets snuff out in dirty skies Celebrities seduce us
\naway from the guides in our dreams Lovers of chaos,
\ncomputers roll back their zero eyes The trumpet cries
\nLos Ni\u00f1os<\/em> in a loud voice Faces on billboards draw closer<\/p>\n

La Ni\u00f1a<\/em>, we pray, and El Ni\u00f1o, her brother<\/em>
\nWe long for sweetness and scale<\/em>
\nOur tables sag under piles of unsorted papers<\/em>
\nSpare us, Ni\u00f1os We don\u2019t know winter from summer<\/em>
\nAbove the trade winds, ozone crackles
\ntheir answer: We have come for the children<\/em><\/p>\n

\"GL<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Image above by George Frederic Watts [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course you\u2019ve heard of \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o.\u201d And you know that it refers to the Pacific Ocean\u2019s warming spells, which can cause heavy rains and even cyclones in the tropics. But did you know that El Ni\u00f1o (Spanish for \u201cthe boy\u201d) is so named because it occurs around Christmas time? And did you know that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1081,"featured_media":10711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3822],"tags":[434,3937,3936,65,899,3572,1945],"class_list":["post-10710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-friday","tag-advent","tag-ava-leavall-haymon","tag-chaos","tag-childhood","tag-nature","tag-peggy-rosenthal","tag-poetry-friday"],"yoast_head":"\nPoetry Friday: "Advent"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Of course you\u2019ve heard of \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o.\u201d And you know that it refers to the Pacific Ocean\u2019s warming spells, which can cause heavy rains and even cyclones in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poetry Friday: "Advent"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Of course you\u2019ve heard of \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o.\u201d And you know that it refers to the Pacific Ocean\u2019s warming spells, which can cause heavy rains and even cyclones in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-02T10:30:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-22T00:40:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/162\/2016\/11\/bright-sun-over-a-featureless-sea-by-george-frederic-watts-on-flickr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"693\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Image\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/\",\"name\":\"Poetry Friday: \\\"Advent\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-02T10:30:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-22T00:40:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/cd918bad37fac701ccc5ea622e00c9b5\"},\"description\":\"Of course you\u2019ve heard of \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o.\u201d And you know that it refers to the Pacific Ocean\u2019s warming spells, which can cause heavy rains and even cyclones in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/12\/poetry-friday-advent\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Poetry Friday: “Advent”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\",\"name\":\"Good Letters\",\"description\":\"Words. 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