I was immediately attracted by the bold incarnational words of Rowan Williams’ poem ‘Advent Calendar’. Even the title enfolds you into one of the accepted icons of the season!

For a composer, there is a rhythm and shape to the way the poem unfolds. Graphic imagery grips the reader and tosses them from one intense scenario to the next. There are moments of calm, of reflection, where one is able to pause and think through this narrative journey. These are challenging words to set to music, which reveal the utter power of the incarnation in Christ who, in entering our limiting calendar, has come ‘like last leaf’s fall’, ‘like frost’, ‘like dark’, ‘like crying in the night’, 'like blood’, ‘like breaking’, but above all, ‘like child’. In just four verses, Rowan Williams wastes not one word in pronouncing this transforming event.