Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas




                  Celebration


                           Brilliant, this day – a young virtuoso of a day.
                           Morning shadow cut by sharpest scissors,
                           deft hands. And every prodigy of green –
                           whether it's ferns or lichens or needles
                           or impatient points of buds on spindly bushes –
                           greener than ever before. And the way the conifers
                           hold new cones to the light for the blessing,
                           a festive right, and sing the oceanic chant the wind
                           transcribes for them!
                           A day that shines in the cold
                           like a first-prize brass band swinging along
                           the street
                           of a coal-dusty village, wholly at odds
                           with the claims of reasonable gloom. 
                      Denise Levertov



Jeanette Winterson posted a startling new Christmas Story on her website a couple of days ago. She writes one every year - this year's is characteristically searing and illuminating. 

This evening we will light candles along the wooden boardwalk that winds its way through my garden, rustle together a pile of cushions and head outside to share poems (Melissa Green's Nativity, David Wagoner's The Silence of Stars, Jeanette's Moon series and this latest Christmas story. . .  We will take turns to read out loud to each other and an audience of trees, grass and stars. . . 



". . .  I keep a light in the window because there is a part of me that believes that the light will attract something - I don't know what - something that isn't a moth. I keep the light lit because I don't want to accept the inevitability of darkness. . . "


Love and blessings to you all this Christmas - may we keep our lights lit as we enter 2013,  a whole - and hope-full - new era. 

4 comments:

  1. Love the Levertov poem...did you know that she used to live just down the street from me for a few years? I was lucky to share a dinner with her, her son, and a few other friends years back.

    And you've also chosen a David Wagoner poem, who taught a graduate writing seminar in which I was enrolled in the late '70's.

    Such a small world, this, and look at how many connections you already have in Seattle!!

    The best of all holiday wishes to you, dear Claire.

    xoT,

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  2. Belated Merry Christmas, Claire, Happy Boxing Day, very belated Solstice Greetings. I love the light kept in the window, kept in our hearts, possibly unseen and unknown to all but a very few, still...Yes, thank you for the poem, the sense I share that in spite of everything, there is the shining day, the forgiving soul. I love the image of reading aloud beyond the candle-lit boardwalk, the summoning and honoring of all that is greater than. Love to you.

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  3. Happy Holidaysareover! I hope you had a wonderful time with your family. Mine has finally gone and now I'm in the wake. God, what a disaster my apartment is... Cheers to the New Year and to cleaning. xoxo

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  4. Thank you, Claire. Denise's poem is sure lit up. (She wrote the introduction to my second book of poems.) The days get longer without any prompting from me, but I like to strike a match in any season.

    Be well, dear . . .

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