Here are three Christmas poems by new AREA 52 contributor Shelley Spiers.

Extracts from the poems:

MARY

Startled!
An angel appears
bringing news of a child.
A baby?
For me?
Surely it's impossible for a virgin to conceive.

Terrified!
What about Joseph?
How to explain?
Imagine the scandal,
the stares and the shouts.
I'll surely be stoned when the news gets out.

Amazed
by words of comfort,
of hope,
of joy.
The child that I carry
is a special baby boy.
A saviour sent from God!

Overjoyed
that the LORD
has blessed his servant.
The mighty one has done great things.
May it be to me just as you say...

JOSEPH

Betrothed;
a love declared,
a future promised to Mary,
my beloved.

But then
a shock;
a scandal.
A baby, not mine,
or Mary
my beloved.

A dilemma:
what could I do
but walk away quietly
and spare the shame
and disgrace
of Mary
my beloved.

But then,
in the night
appeared an angel
with a message.

"Do not fear! Marry Mary your beloved."...

THE WORD

The Word:
The one through whom and by whom all things were made.
The Word became flesh and lived among us.

The Word:
The one who spoke the earth into being,
who designed each uniquely intricate snowflake and composed the sweet song of the nightingale.
The Word became flesh and lived among us.

The Word:
The one who flung stars into space,
who set the planets in orbit and breathed life into mankind.
The Word became flesh and lived among us.

The Word:
The Son of God, Light of the World;
fully God, fully man;
our Rescuer.
The Word became flesh and lived among us...

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