Cold Christ Child

 Dear Reader,

 

I wrote today's poem after I had been to a London Art Gallery showing religious paintings and depicting Jesus Christ in Mary's arms, naked.  It is not known the exact date He was born but new evidence indicates that He may have been born in late summer or early autumn in the year 12BC, and that the star that led the three wise men to Bethlehem was Hailey's comet.  

Apparently it was a cold Mediterranean night when He was born in which case He would have needed lots of warm blankets to cover him.  But there He is with nothing on in many paintings.  Mary and Joseph themselves wore heavy woollen cloaks constructed to shed rain and snow. Under their cloaks they wore long robes, belted at the waist. I always look for the truth in stories, and in life itself, so I suspect He was clothed in something warm but the artists wanted the drama of innocent naked child.

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Just a small thought about Boris Johnson and his inability to tell the truth.  Oscar Wilde said:  'Whoever let the truth get in the way of a good story' and this is exactly how Boris thinks.  He wants to be entertaining, funny and a bit outrageous and exact detail is not important.The truth is as he tells it, and what the hell does it matter anyway, I suspect, he thinks to himself.

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From John Ruskin, March 28th, 1875, in Lancashire

 

'A clear afternoon, with some beauty of amber light behind the hills, and lovely starlight at ten, changed instantly into whistling wild wind at half past ten, and this morning rain, bitter cold black wind and wild lake, all blowing from the south.  I utterly languid, and cold handed and hopeless. '

                                                                                   

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Cold Christ Child

 

Why did Murillo, Fra Filippo Lippi, 

Leonardo da Vinci paint

the Christ Child naked?

Did they not know of night-time cold?

 

Was the hot Levantine wind

blowing in the midday sun,

enough to stay the chill of evening

and warm this precious child?

 

They painted the Madonna in a dress,

the soldiers fully clad

in jerkins, armour, helmets,

the angels in sumptuous robes,

but the Christ Child is left on marble floors,

or dandled in laps,

with nothing to swaddle and secure him.

 

Could it be that this cold start

was not enough 

to set alight the love

needed to save us all?

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia