A Poetic Calendar

            For my series of advent poems, I intend to write a series of poems to be read every daily during the season as a meditation or devotional. Since the number of days in the season of advent may include as many as 27 days, a traditional calendar may be confusing, and so I will label the pieces according to liturgical time. For example, the first poem will be for the first Sunday of Advent, the second for the Monday in the first week of advent, and so on. Seeing as Christmas is a mobile day, the poem for Christmas Eve will be separate from the calendar putting the total number up to 28. As for Christmas, I will not write a piece for that day, seeing as it is in a separate season from advent. As far a presentation goes, I will probably avoid merely printing off the pieces, but Instead I will try to arrange them in a more decorative fashion, perhaps using them as parts of house decorations or a making my own advent calendar to house them.

            As for the actual content of the poems, I hope to express the great themes of light, darkness, the incarnation, and revelation by examining both the Catholic tradition and the natural world around me. In my opinion early winter is one of the most beautiful times of year, a time where falling snow transforms the darkness and death of fall into something that is still great and beautiful despite the cold and snow. I hope that my poems can capture some of this beauty. Similarly, I want to use the great history and traditions of Roman Catholicism to achieve the same feeling of hope amidst darkness, using it to paint an even broader picture than I can, using something beyond the sizable but limited pallet of the natural worlds beauty. One way I will attempt to achieve this latter goal is to base each week of poems on the lectionary readings for the previous Sunday. In addition, I may introduce certain pieces for notable feast days that occur during Advent such as the feast of St. Nicholas, St. Ambrose, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Like the Christmas Eve Poem these pieces will be free-roaming and can be inserted into the series of poems at any time.