I’M TRYING TO FIND A POEM ABOUT CHRISTMAS THAT I ACTUALLY LIKE
but they are mostly dated and filled with words like thine and o’er and behold. And yes, I do want something about the snow, and the light as it falls on the snow, but I could do without the angels today, or anything unreachable that’s supposed to be looking out for us down here. And yes, I do want something about the trees, both outside and inside, and about the singing, and about the laying out of the table, or the looping of ribbons, or the tucking in of children. But I’m wishing we could leave God out of it. It’s not God’s job to hang out with us right now and fix things. I want something that uses filling stockings as a metaphor for choosing small kindnesses to tuck into each person’s heart. Something that reminds us that the horse knows the way, so if we could just find that horse and hold on, we’ll come out of all this OK. Something that, yes, is filled with the glistening and the sparkling and all things aglow, because As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky— Yes, that’s the kind of thing I want, all of us outrunning the storm that’s pushing us out of the year, and we’re climbing right over the tired pile of reindeer to what’s really up there for us. The snow coming down. The way we shape it with our hands and throw. —from Poets Respond December 24, 2017