The Nativity

Sing on!! Burst forth! And wash the hills, streams of pealing.
Burst forth!! Sing on... Bells... Bells...
Carry it onward to the crossroads of the generations, where the snows are flecks from the garment of the stars,
and the intervals of your pealing live and die — carry onward
bundles of myrrh
and pools of frankincense
and columns of incense...
At the meeting-place of remotest time, the earth made the sky her guest,
and the panting of the frost hearkened: to the growing of the grasses,
to the roses taking color,
and to the fragrance of the white lilies.
And in the panting of the frost, and beneath the soil of the earth, the body cast out
its humors, and the spirit rose, shaking from its shoulders "the grime
of the Flood" and "the statue of Sodom," gathering in the universes the shadow of God.
And primal matter rattled through the worlds; so the spirit picked up the jewels of the abstract
and burst them over the earth in rivers:
it poured "Knowledge" into the light of the sun,
and made of "Truth" and "Sufficiency" pillars for the temples,
and spread upon the air a scarf of "Love" and "Mysticism" and "Beauty,"
and the world stood imaged, dazed, upon the face of the sky.
And the angels steal in through the windows of the firmament, asking with a glance whether the earth might become their dwelling.
And in the forests of existence were vipers that flared up, curled their lips in scorn, and turned away
from what was sent down upon the mountain. So they loaded the cross upon him; he sank, and he rose;
and they dressed him in a crown of thorns,
and his limbs were nailed,
and the blood gushed from his side,
and they gave him vinegar to drink,
and the Greatest Being gasped out in his last agony: "Eli! Eli! why hast thou forsaken me?" while the spirit hovered about him:
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
And the mountains rent their garments, and the tomb was shaken,
and the caravans of the generations chanted, in the name of God, incantations:
Sing on!! Burst forth! And wash the hills, streams of pealing,
Burst forth!! Sing on! Bells! Bells! Bells.