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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'I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
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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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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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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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[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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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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There is always something to be made of pain.
Your mother knits.
She turns out scarves in every shade of red.
They were for Christmas, and they kept you warm
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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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The Little Wooden Dog
Alice and Max lived with their mother Margo, in a small Austrian village in the mountains and had lost their father to an accident when they were very small children and lived with their mother who was a seamstress and made all of their clothes because they had very little money to live on. They lived in a small cottage in a little hamlet called Wednesdayburg on the slopes of mount Ludivik which was named after one of the old Austrian Kings of long ago. Alice was now seven and Max was six years old and they always wanted a little dog of their own but their mother was unable to afford a real one because they only had enough money to live on as they lived quite a meagre existence as it was. So the children amused themselves as best they could and played with the other children in the village when they were not at school which was lower down the mountain.
One of their neighbors, a man called Alexis who was now getting on a bit and lived on his own but had always been a family friend and lived just a short way away on the edge of the village making his living working in the woods chopping down trees that would be used for firewood during the winter and he also made wooden toys and puzzles for the children at Christmas which was always celebrated in style in the village which all the children enjoyed. Christmas was coming and the children were excited as usual but they knew that their mother had very little money coming in from her occasional sewing she did around the village and taking in the odd lodger for a short while quite often through the skiing season. So Christmas would be a magical time as the love they shared with their mother, made up for any lack of presents.
Alexis would always look out for Margo and her children sometimes when she went out the back door of their little cottage she would find wood for the fire and the occasional item of food to help her through the week and even though she did not like to take it she had no choice so was grateful for whoever left it there but she assumed it was Alexis who she also had feelings for but was unable to tell him for fear of rejection.
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The true meaning of Christmas is love
The true meaning of Christmas is peace
The true meaning of Christmas is joy
The true meaning of Christmas is family
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Christmas time has come to be
Presents are gathered ‘round the tree
In the candlelit calm tonight
I will a present for you write
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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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