Christmas Day

Wishing my family and all of my friends, wherever you may be, a very Merry Christmas. May you carry the meaning and spirit of this Christmas Day in your heart.

In lieu of a post of my own, I offer this excerpt from Anne Porter's poem "Noel", which is from her last collection Living Things (Zoland Books, Steerforth Press, Hanover, New Hampshire, 2006. Copyright © Anne Porter. All Rights Reserved.) Anne Porter was a 1999 National Book Award finalist, for An Altogether Different Language, and was married to the representational painter Fairfield Porter.

. . . We hear and sing
The customary carols

. . .That are loved all the more
Because they are so common

But there are carols
That carry phrases
Of the haunting music
Of the other world
A music wild and dangerous
As a prophet's message

Or the fresh truth of children
Who though they come to us
From our own bodies
Are altogether new. . .

They look at us
With their clear eyes
And ask the piercing questions
God alone can answer.