Christmas Day Poem
How can it be
Christmas? This year Christmas is set on its ears.
The lead up, the
preparations, the time of penance and charity.
I have been most
unwholesome, unhappy, grumpy, sullen, angry,
and at odds with all
things Christmas.
Grinchy Christmas
tree, begrudging decorations, baking that has gone in the bin.
I want to be quiet,
I want to be silent,
I want to be in myself with God.
I don’t want to party
or be festive
I don’t want to party
or be festive
I don’t want a load
of nonsense chatter and small talk.
I want peace
I want to lay down at
the bottom of a riverbed looking up through the green clear water
Up through the aqua
ripples up to the sky
And watch as clouds
slowly move across
And dawn parts to
reveal full day and afternoon atomises into cool even
And the dew falls and
the sun falls behind a green hill
Clustered with trees
and the moon rises from the opposite side of the hill
And still I lie
peaceful
Soundless, quiet and
at rest under the water looking up and watching and watching.
Waiting and waiting
At last I see in a
cave on the hill a refugee couple labour through the night
The hardest work, the
most difficult, confusing, unknowable, painful work a woman can do.
She works all night,
watched, guarded, kept safe by her man. And some sheep
A goat, a cow some
chickens.
And at the end of her
nights work she holds the fruit of her labour, a baby.
She has sewn soft
blankets and coverings to keep him warm
and she holds him so
close
Everyone is asleep
now as dawn breaks, it’s been a long and difficult night.
Now the danger is
over she snuggles with her son nestled close to her and she sleeps too.
The first hard work
of life is to make the journey from warmth and safety into the breezy world so
loud and bright and unexpected.
In that cave on a
hill they rest. Gently neighbours call in to offer joy and congratulations
A coin for the baby’s
hand, a dish of something hot for the mother,
A prayer offered, a
blessing accepted, health and life given thanks for.
And the hill will
play its part again later.
A seat for crowds of
listeners, a gog at the stories and illustrations he will give,
The place of
miraculous cures and healings and temptations,
The hill where a
heard of swine all jumped off possessed,
The scene of
accusation, torture and a cruel death.
But this hill with
its cave is also the site of redemption, the place of the ultimate miracle
Life regained and claimed
Feet on the ground
standing on grass
Feet that were nailed
Now walking, living.
Not dead – alive,
back alive again and walking up cloud steps growing larger
And more colossal
with every step higher
until he encompasses
the whole world in his heart
and he stands on the Milky
Way with the planets as his halo.
And from my place at
the bed of the river with a rock for a pillow and weeds for a mattress
Looking up and up and
up at the shooting stars
And the Northern
lights and the dancing sun.
I
know that nothing is impossible for him.
And
I am happy to accept a blessing of the season, and I am content to give thanks
For
the season, and good will is restored.
Don’t
lose sight daughter
Of
the hill,
And
the cave
It’s
the beginning and the end of the story ad infinitum.
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