[stylist] Poem - "Christmas Card" - Second Draft

[Jackie Williams]

Bill,
I wish I had written this. Need I say more?

Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz	 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William L
Houts via stylist
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2014 12:44 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: [stylist] Poem - "Christmas Card" - Second Draft

Hey Wits and Poets:

Something for the season, I suppose.   Comments welcome, as always.


--Bill


---

Christmas Card

Neither angels nor elves, their toys

and trumpets announcing Christmas Land fun,

but a still and sober nature:

a buck, a rabbit, a golden-eyed owl

arrested in stances,

this winter commune, as actual

as unmythed frozen earth:

These creatures gazed, with liquid eyes

upon a rare sky'sprophet star.

sofree, this card, of kitsch it slipped

my cynical guard and struck me

crucial hard:I broke open to faith,

and found some years the solace of bread

and wine. I'm lying, mind,a tiny pip;

other starbolts, too, conspired for me to take

the Saint James plunge. I'm unchurched now,

but how I grant that Christmas card

a nod for herding me to Catholic pews:

abandoned now, but cherished, kept.

I do retain a miracle soul: respect

the wisdom of chance and change: I dream,

I play, I bathe, waters of love and rain

my only church,more bloodfelt than the Dove.













-- 


"Oh, Sophie!  Whyfore have you eated all de cheeldren?"

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