1.  It was Christmas in the wilderness

The men between grey sea and grey sky
Sat forward on the ship talking low
A faint tinge of orange warmed the grey
As the sun set

The ship somewhere between
The Admiralty Islands and the Phillipines,
1946

One of the men began to sing–to sing
the songs of men in their position

And it was Christmas in the wilderness

2.  Mother, son and daughter gather around the tree
And sing the songs of families in their position

The tree smells of pine, the air of father’s pipe
And the tree lights tinge the grey dawn
Somewhere in Alabama,
1999

It was Christmas in the wilderness

3.  Virgin, father and Son bed down in a cave,
And God enters the grey world small
His cries tinge the sounds of the animals
Stirring in the shelter around Him
And no one has ever been in their position,
Kings approach,
It is the year of the Lord.

And it was Christmas in the wilderness

((1) based on a passage from Henry Bugbee’s Inward Morning.)