Christmas Poems

Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos' turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.
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One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.
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Love is...

Love is feeling cold in the back of vans
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I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
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“Wow! It’s Christmas, happiness coming
Now for the gift welcoming loving
Then to the church to bow before God
And to the market to buy me a gift
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We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
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'I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
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Moonless darkness stands between.
Past, the Past, no more be seen!
But the Bethlehem-star may lead me
To the sight of Him Who freed me
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[Given to Frank Bidart]


You won't become a gourmet* cook
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Sitting in front of the fire, Auntie Flo's reciting a story,
it's one about her first Christmas as a newly wed,
the same one she broadcasts every year,
but no one is listening.
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They let the children out of school too early.
I left the Christmas shopping till too late.
Each day we had a holiday excursion,
Which gave us the entire week to wait in line for
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Among the blight-killed eucalypts, among
trees and bushes rusted by Christmas frosts,
the yards and hillsides exhausted by five years of drought,
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If I rest for a moment near The Equestrian
pausing for a liver sausage sandwich in the Mayflower Shoppe,
that angel seems to be leading the horse into Bergdorf's
and I am naked as a table cloth, my nerves humming.
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A Christmas tree! A Christmas tree!
With dark green needled memories
Of childhood dreams and mysteries
Wrapped present-like in front of me.
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Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!
Mighty glad I ain't a girl - ruther be a boy,
Without them sashes, curls, an' things that's worn by Fauntleroy!
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Are you...........
ready for Christmas? , to decorate the tree,
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The woman in the ordinary pudgy downcast girl
is crouching with eyes and muscles clenched.
Round and pebble smooth she effaces herself
under ripples of conversation and debate.
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The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
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Christmas is come and every hearth
Makes room to give him welcome now
E'en want will dry its tears in mirth
And crown him wi' a holly bough
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Dim dawn behind the tamerisks -- the sky is saffron-yellow --
As the women in the village grind the corn,
And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow
That the Day, the staring Easter Day is born.
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Rejoice one and all
For today is Christmas
Decorate the hall
For today is Christmas
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Christmas In America
The best of Christmas gives us time to reflect
The blessings of God beyond compare
Who and what we love and respect.
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The Song

Verse One:
I'm so glad it's Christmas,
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Our Christmas plans are finalized…this year we will celebrate…
our Christmas not on Christmas…but December 28.

Our family has some Christmas traditions that when we blended together we created…
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I love Christmas traditions…from the food to the presents to the tree…how each family has our own traditions…locked into our memory.

I remember Christmases in Ohio…where I was born…where I did my earliest growing…I remember our aluminum Christmas tree with rotating colors…I remember cold…I remember snowing.
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Boy, how things have changed! It doesn't seem that long ago, only 60 or so years, that my Christmases were so very much different than they are today.
Christmas back then was much simpler and so very much less commercial. With less than 10 TV channels, if you even had a TV, there was no constant bombardment of ads for toys, clothing, or other gifts. There were NO Christmas commercials for electronics, much less cars and other big tickets items.
Time was spent waiting for the Sears catalog, and then more time paging through it, looking for what we might want to put on our list. And then looking some more, crossing the old items off, and adding new ones. Oh, we kids knew we weren't going to get everything on our list, but just the idea of having a list at all brought some excitement. Our expectations were not way beyond the actual either. There were four kids in my family, Mom was a stay at home mother, and Dad worked two, sometimes three jobs, to keep us fed, clothed, and warm. Most times at Christmas we got one "large" present, clothing, and a few stocking size gifts.
Let me describe one of those Christmas times as best I can recall. I may have been 10 or 12 so the memory may be off but you'll get the gist of it.
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Christmas brings lights that lighten every alley.
Christmas fills the void of each heart's saddened valley.
Christmas brings Santa with surprising gifts of toys.
Christmas brings laughter to mainly girls and boys.
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I bought boots for Christmas to tread the icy plains.
I bought toys for Christmas with Santas in my trains.
I lit my home for Christmas with a Cedar bright.
I made cup cakes for Christmas for my love's delight.
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Joy keeps escalating at Christmas time
December keeps ushering Christmas joy;
Christmas bring families together with love
Christmas brings lovers together with hope
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My yesterday's Christmas, gone like the wind. In nostalgia I go back in time.
Children dancing in ecstatic joy of the songs, holiday is coming, no more morning bells.
In anticipation our young minds wait with bathed breath.
New clothes, new shoes, dad and mom, their duty to us.
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