Before Midnight Mass
By MARK AMOROSE
Out of the black, a burst of aural light:
the newborn carols that we, singing, pray
deny it is the middle of the night,
and in the dark we hear the break of day.
Each song-starved tongue, each fasting ear, revives,
prepared by Advent abstinence to feast:
From voluntary limits on our lives,
the manna of the music is released.
And thus we hark, and herald angels sing
the first noel — in dulci jubilo!
We walk with Wenceslas the servant-king,
following where the saint has marked the snow.
And when the organ sounds the starting chord
we are in David’s city with the Lord.