Christmas Heart-Beat

Christmas Heart-Beat

I feel my heart beating-

beat for beat – with this child’s heart

Why does my heart beat – beat for beat –

with this child’s heart?

Is it that this beating heart has given to me

by some arcane alchemy of blood –

by some secret magic – a new insight –

a new understanding?

Are not all children like this child –

are not all sleeping children

peaceful as this one?

My eyes would say so, but my heart

Feels otherwise, feels this child’s heart-beat

As its own, yet not its own alone,

But all the world’s.

This child has a secret, sacred heart

Only my sacred soul’s secret ears can here –

A heart encompassing the whole world’s hopes –

Pulsing in all hearts everywhere –

In hearts of men and prayerful women,

In children’s happy hearts, and in the hearts

Of mild-eyed cattle by the mangers side –

And in the heart of the gentle donkey

Marked with the cross upon its shoulders –

Where palms are strewn –

Where ring the loud Hosannas.

                                                  Maitri Mudra (EH)