Candy Cane Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

to Henry Van Dyke, on my grandparents bookshelf
(by the Christmas tree and the living room picture window)

red and white should always taste this sweet
and painted just that way you are
crunched in English perfectly:
candy, candy cane.

a quintessential name, we crowned you queen of the
Christmas candies; such a delight to see you gaily striped
and peeking out from the stocking Christmas a.m.
when our a.m. was very a.m. then.

you kept that secret well.
or caught in smaller crooks between the icicles on the tree
as proud as any of the other ornaments, even the glass ones
in jewel tones from the 1940s,

I'm sure you twinkled
bright alongside them, beckoning us
to the Great Feast.

Candy cane, cane, cane appearing in ice cream as if the
angels folded you in, oh, how can I explain and turning the ice cream pink as palest roses on the rose tree
in our picture book.

how you should spill from the clouds whenever it snows
as from the angel choruses;
when you were porous, we sipped oranges through you
wondering, oh orange and peppermint together

even the dolls had no better wedding;
even the ones in peau de soie and
crystal embedded veiling with mysterious smiles.
and carrying their little paper

bouquets of white violets seriously-
gross grain silver ribbons streaming.
who dreamed you up?

all the ships of childhood sailing on
a golden pond, in a diamond wood
should have sails like these.

wrapped in chocolate and golden foil
I would put you in the offering plate on Sunday:
the brass one with the purple lining=
a treat for God and for the baby Jesus.

maybe the fourth wiseman brought you
wrapped in scarlet silk, a long, long way
even a little late for His birthday
bearing the tang of fir trees

and coated with starriness.

mary angela douglas 27 july 2014

Note on the poem: Henry Van Dyke wrote a little mysterious book, The Other Wiseman and another book I love as well, The Blue Flower.

Also, credit where credit is due, I read a Russian folk tale recently in an English version for children by Virginia Haviland (in the 1950s or 60s) in which the following images appear as belonging to the king: a silver wood, a diamond pond, a golden castle, which I have altered a little bit here, transposing the images...