After a painting by Burne-Jones

   

 

A strange season –

roses blossom among the thorns

harebells

at the feet of the Virgin

yet the trees are bare

Joseph, the woodsman

wears a woollen cloak

 

but stranger still

how the magi have laid

down their crowns,

the way the angel

holds the star of the east

in his hands

 

 

 

First published in The Spectator, 2019