;
Prince of Peace
A rose has sprung
as ancients sung
from Jesse’s root
a tender shoot
in desert stone.
Isaiah said
that fragrant head
be Prince of Peace
bringer of bliss
between all nations.
Plucked and torn
and capped in thorn
that sprig was hung
from cross bar slung
with ache of nails.
Peace has not come
trumpet and drum
bode bomb and flame
lead flies the same
as arrows of old.
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Murray Alfredson is a retired librarian and lecturer, who has also worked in Buddhist chaplaincy at Flinders University of South Australia. He has published poems and essays in Manifold, Cadenza, Reach, Ocean, Touch, the journal of healing, Overland, Eremos and other journals and anthologies in Australia, the USA, Canada and the UK, and a poetry collection, “Nectar and light,” in Friendly Street new poets, 12. (Adelaide: Wakefield Press and Friendly Street Poets, 2007.) He has won a High Beam Poetry Award in 2004, and the Poetry Unhinged Multicultural poetry prize in 2006 and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. A second collection, The gleaming clouds, is forthcoming in 2013.
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