Request: Christmas/winter holiday poems

[pyreneeees.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone! A friend just asked me for a poem that she could handwrite and put in a frame for Christmas, and I was personally horrified to realize I don't know any contemporary Christmas or winter poems. Gah! Please inundate me with all your favorite winter/Christmas/holiday poems, and I shall give you this lovely, hopeful Anne Sexton poem in return. Happy start of winter!

Snow
by Anne Sexton

Snow, blessed snow,
comes out of the sky
like bleached flies.
The ground is no longer naked.
The ground has on its clothes.
Trees poke out of sheets
and each branch wears the sock of God.

There is hope.
There is hope everywhere.
I bite it.
Someone once said:
Don't bite till you know
if it's bread or stone.
What I bite is all bread,
rising, yeasty as a cloud.

There is hope.
There is hope everywhere.
Today God gives milk
and I have the pail.

Comments

by Dorothy Clutterbuck

[jesuslovesbono.livejournal.com]

Then with a flash of Scarlet
Sweeping across the snows
Comes Christmas, Radiant Creature!
She's laughing as she goes. The shining holly fills her lap
Blue pages hold her train
Dear Time of lovely memories. So here you are again
There stand the glittering Christmas Trees
The Fires flame and glow
Soft fingers tapping on the pane
Are fairies, made of snow
The Bells ring out, The Carols mount
All the old songs are dear
The First Most Sacred Festival
The best of all the year.