Christmas 2014 Poem by James Tipp

Christmas 2014

The family room was full to over crowding, the cause, the census
Below the animals snorted shuffled, their warm breath rising, moist.
The women fussed around the youngster heavy with child, expectant
Not ideal but not uncommon, the place was clean tidy and safe.
Then it was all over, the faint cry another life had entered the world,
Yet this child's cry would never cease to echo through the ages.
A infinitesimal murmur in the cosmos, would break the mould
Transform the future, call for new ideals new expectations, amazing.
So he began as many still do in poverty, an insignificant birth
In an insignificant place to a people under oppression and suppression.
Still nothing would dampen or cover his cry from straw fill bed
To the tree on which his last words would echo down 'Forgive'
Christmas the joy of hope and an alternative to hate and fear, 'Love'
Listen, still the message echoes on, never ceasing, ever calling
Beneath the iphone, kindle, must have toy, the echo calls, listen
It calls for love, grace, truth, to be the presents presented, freely given
A far cry from the straw filled bed, but not a far cry from the hearts desire,
The lasting gifts for humanity never go out of fashion, always available
Always there in the echo of a baby's cry in an insignificant place, Bethlehem.


© J Tipp 2014