by Jeffrey Essmann

If violets should bloom in winter’s cold,
Their tender scent would to the gelid air
A sweetness lend, revive the human soul,
And bid the earth to wondrous hope repair—
A hope it otherwise might never dare. 

Yet such a bloom took root when Gabriel
His strange announcement rendered to a girl
Of Nazareth that God would deeply dwell
In her and there his very self impearl
So that the world’s salvation might unfurl.

Her humble yes thereto transformed her quite
From girl to woman, even unto queen
Whose power royal was the grace we might
Like her surrender to a light unseen,
A light whose hope all darkness contravenes.

Thus in these purpled weeks of evening deep
We light our candles to dispel the gloom
And in our hearts a lonely vigil keep
While sensing near eternity’s perfume
That week by week imbued the Virgin’s womb.

Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, The Society of Classical Poets, Amethyst Review, Agape Review, America Magazine, U.S. Catholic, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal,Edge of Faith, Pensive, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room.