Christmas poems
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Where They Lived by Marge Saiser: American Life in Poetry #104 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2
© Ted Kooser
At some time many of us will have to make a last visit to a house where aged parents lived out their days. Here Marge Saiser beautifully compresses one such farewell.
Where They Lived
Das Krist Kindel
© James Whitcomb Riley
I had fed the fire and stirred it, till the sparkles in delight
Snapped their saucy little fingers at the chill December night;
And in dressing-gown and slippers, I had tilted back "my
throne"--
The old split-bottomed rocker--and was musing all alone.
A New Year's Time At Willards's
© James Whitcomb Riley
There's old man Willards; an' his wife;
An' Marg'et-- S'repty's sister--; an'
There's me-- an' I'm the hired man;
An' Tomps McClure, you better yer life!
bad for ears
© Rg Gregory
the song wasn't up to the task
of getting through the double-glazing
into the ears pressed on the outside pane
the rest of their bodies had faded away but
christmas in a box
© Rg Gregory
the policeman on the streets
found christmas in a box
tipped it down a manhole
it wasn't wearing socks
A Christmas Carol
© Algernon Charles Swinburne
THREE DAMSELS in the queens chamber,
The queens mouth was most fair;
She spake a word of Gods mother
As the combs went in her hair.
Mary that is of might,
Bring us to thy Sons sight.
at the sixty-ninth station
© Rg Gregory
here at the sixty-ninth station
of the gregokaido road
i have a sense of completion
that is not completed yet
christmas the delinquent
© Rg Gregory
i got nothing last year
and i expect nothing this
so i've got to find
if i'm to be rewarded
wimborne minster
© Rg Gregory
though there's not much faith left
and very little snow
this scene of wimborne minster
still makes its christmas show
from imperfect Eden
© Rg Gregory
(1)
and off to scott's (the dockers' restaurant)
burly men packed in round solid tables
but what the helle (drowned in hellespont)
A Christmas Carol
© Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
GOD rest ye, merry gentlemen; let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas-day.
The dawn rose red o'er Bethlehem, the stars shone through the gray,
When Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas-day.
from crossing the line
© Rg Gregory
there was a great man
so great he couldn't be criticised in the light
who died
and for a whole week people turned up their collars over their ears
and wept with great gossiping
the singing dog
© Rg Gregory
when the dog began to sing
the people ran amok
a man shinned up a flagpole
a woman chewed her sock
the plane and the blackbird
© Rg Gregory
a cold bright sun
two days to christmas
a first-quarter moon
at a good vantage-point
Winter Song
© Wilfred Owen
The browns, the olives, and the yellows died,
And were swept up to heaven; where they glowed
Each dawn and set of sun till Christmastide,
And when the land lay pale for them, pale-snowed,
Fell back, and down the snow-drifts flamed and flowed.
The Three Quiet Gentlemen
© Henry Lawson
There is a quiet gentleman a-motoring in France
(Oh, dont you hear the honking of a British motor-car?)
The Ballad Of The Proverbs
© Francois Villon
Prince, so long as a fool persists, he grows wiser;
so, round the world he goes, but return he will,
so humbled and beaten back into servility.
So loud you cry Christmas, it is here.
The Rich Boys Christmas
© Ellis Parker Butler
And now behold this sulking boy,
His costly presents bring no joy;
Harsh tears of anger fill his eye
Tho he has all that wealth can buy.
The Poor Boys Christmas
© Ellis Parker Butler
Observe, my child, this pretty scene,
And note the air of pleasure keen
With which the widows orphan boy
Toots his tin horn, his only toy.
