Christ Child Lullaby Filk
West Coast Eisteddfod Online Poetry Competition 2017
(This one may need an introduction. A filk, or fictional folk song, is as serious as the fictional characters singing it would be. This is a Christmas carol for a fictional world where the Christian message was accepted by people whose cultural presuppositions cause them to read the Bible in a different light than some of us do.)
To landless laborers in a town
The Lord of all land lowered down
And, lower still than the Lady’s hall,
Was born a baby in cattle’s stall.
In hired house, in distant land,
The little King first learned to stand:
O tremble at His tenderness,
Landlords who love the poor to press.
Halleluia! Halleluia! Halleluia!
Unworthy I to tend to Thee.
And loving lowliness to show,
As male uncouth the King did go;
No child to His breast ever bent,
Though fearless they followed where He went;
Nor in His faithfulness He feared
To show the shame of manly beard,
But all His learning had from home,
To teach male teachers who did roam.
Halleluia! Halleluia! Halleluia!
Unworthy I to tend to Thee.
The Holy One ordained a share
Of sons’ substance for parents’ care,
With portions also for the priest
And flour and fat the folk to feast.
The tyrant trod their days and nights.
The panicked priests robbed parents’ rights.
The King who came among that race
Taught thieving tyrant his true place!
Halleluia! Halleluia! Halleluia!
Unworthy I to tend to Thee.
Child King, be cradled in my mind!
Let my longing spirit find
Holiness and harmony,
Fruit and flower of love for Thee.
Lower me to the last and least,
To win place at Thy wedding feast.
Rede my mind and rule my will;
Let me all Love’s laws fulfill.
Halleluia! Halleluia! Halleluia!
Unworthy I to tend to Thee.
