Christmas Trees
Bonhoeffer in his skylit cell
bleached by the flares’ candescent fall,
pacing out his own citadel,
restores the broken themes of praise,
encourages our borrowed days,
by logic of his sacrifice.
Against wild reasons of the state
his words are quiet but not too quiet.
We hear too late or not too late.
English poet Geoffrey Hill is the author of Tenebrae, The Triumph of Love and other books of poetry, including a new volume, A Treatise of Civil Power, published by Yale University Press.
“Christmas Trees,” from New and Collected Poems 1952-1992 by Geoffrey Hill. Copyright © 1994 by Geoffrey Hill. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. All rights reserved.