Christmas Nostalgia

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