Poetry in Ordinary Time: The Forerunner

John the Baptist in the Wilderness
Berner Nelkenmeister, 1495

Yesterday -- June 24 -- was the Feast Day of St. John, the Baptizer.  At this same time of year, we mark the longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest in the south: a Solstice.

Here's how British priest and poet, Malcolm Guite, reflects on this day:

St. John's Eve

Midsummer night, and bonfires on the hill
Burn for the man who makes way for the Light:
'He must increase and I diminish still,
Until his sun illuminates my night.'
So John the Baptist pioneers our path,
Unfolds the essence of the life of prayer,
Unlatches the last doorway into faith,
And makes one inner space an everywhere.
Least of the new and greatest of the old,
Orpheus on the threshold with his lyre,
He sets himself aside, and cries, 'Behold
The One who stands amongst you comes with fire!'
So keep his fires burning through this night,
Beacons and gateways for the child of light.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

**You can hear this read aloud by the poet HERE.