More on: David Brendan Hopes

Come into my garden, the Christ Child said to me. Here is the lily for what’s past, the rose for what’s to be. Here is the emerald mound where love lies till the day all sleeping souls must rise and do what the hardest scriptures say. Here is the sapphire pool from which the laughing…

The stab to the heart that is such music, the light beyond brightness that is such sight— For the sake of this season in the stories I will cease my wars with God tonight. I will choose, with open eye, the talking beasts, the white-in-the-snowdrift Christmas rose, the legends of wandering a bitter way, high…

Remember a time before the big, important occasions that made it into the book, before the winemaking and the raising from the dead. Remember you were a girl, and a boy brought you flowers. The moon moved and another boy brought you flowers. It looked like that was the way it was going to be…