Here's a poem from Ed that definitely captures the spirit of Christmases past much better than my little blog of yesterday. Leave it to my younger brother to show me up!
Christmas
Nostalgia
Memories pour down
Like December’s rain
Nostalgia fills me
Until I am carried
away
With a flood of emotions
I abstain control
Letting them run free
Like a swollen river
Redefining its course
Intrigued to see
What this intangible force
Can unearth
Possibly death
Decaying bones
Or perhaps treasure
It’s all a risk
Lights cover the Christmas tree
Their twinkling becomes
A hypnotic focus
As I travel back
Like Dicken’s Scrooge
With Ghost of Christmas Past
Music fills the home
45’s on a gray fold out player
Belt out scratchy Christmas songs
Crosby, Ives & Nat King Cole
Brothers, sisters and parents
Bustle about
Wrapping presents
For each family member
Gifts purchased
With pennies saved
From money earned
Throughout the year
It is not the amount spent
That matters
But the price paid
And sacrifice is the sum
So the presents mound up
Their numbers multiplying
Until the floor is covered
With boxes of charity
Ave Maria plays
And I am transported
To midnight Mass
Veiled women
And suited men
Pack the Mission Cathedral
Christmas hymns sung
Latin liturgy choreographed
The heat of human bodies
Makes one sweat
Or is it the ritual of the Eucharist
And the narrow escape
Of Alter Boy conscription
Pungent Incense
Rises from a laver
Swung on gold chain
As the Robed procession
With pomp and circumstance
Exits like royalty
And so do I
My paper route awaits
The Business world
Stops for nothing
Only manna is sacred
So the pedals turn
On my goose necked bike
I deliver the urgent news
Of after Christmas sales
With songs and Liturgy
Fresh in mind
I am alive
Under star filled skies
Like the shepherds
Tending flocks
I hear the angels Chorus
And am filled
With gifts
Of hope
Charity
And transcendence
Time Blurs
Nostalgia fades
I return to Christmas present
The rain still falls
But now from my eyes
I abstain from controlling it
Ed
Northen
12/20/02