Carols

The moon is high in a cloudless sky and we walk down the long farm track, puddles shining in the moonlight, to St Boniface Kirk for carols, the wind vigorous outside, the sea breaking against the rocks ... candles and torches, accordion accompaniment ... some century or other, light in darkness, what counts as darkness, what counts as light, Celtic priests with the vigilance of warriors, alert to every sound in the darkness, to every gleam of light, the form of consciousnesness without which ... not, as I sometimes dismissed them, early muscular Christians ...