Poem: “The Adoration of the Kings” by: William Carlos Williams

From the Nativity 

which I have already celebrated 

the Babe in its Mother’s arms 

 

the Wise Men in their stolen 

splendor 

and Joseph and the soldiery 

 

attendant 

with their incredulous faces 

make a scene copied we’ll say 

 

from the Italian masters 

but with a difference 

the mastery 

 

of the painting 

and the mind the resourceful mind 

that governed the whole 

 

the alert mind dissatisfied with 

what it is asked to 

and cannot do 

 

accepted the story and painted 

it in the brilliant 

colors of the chronicler 

 

the downcast eyes of the Virgin 

as a work of art 

for profound worship