Christmas Poetry

by John Michael Williams

jmmwill@comcast.net

I began composing my own Christmas cards years ago, on an IBM

AT computer running DOS. My first graphics were awful, on a
dot-matrix black-and-white printer, and the poetry was dense and
convoluted. I still mail hardcopy cards to friends and relatives,
but now I am up to Windows 2000, Corel Draw and an Epson color
inkjet with over 1000 dpi graphical resolution.
Anyway, I'd like to share with readers the poems I have written for
my cards, beginning with the one for Christmas, 2000.

Christmas Poetry

year 2000

Year 2000 (graphic of a snowman):

I reminisce my three whole days;

I ponder, wise in hoary ways.
Yet I believe my list will find
its way into your generous Mind:
I want some dark and cold today:
enough to keep the sun away.
Some shade,
Some still and frozen mist;
An icicle -- that I persist
Beyond this eve 'til Christmas Day.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2001

Year 2001 (graphic of a wreath):

This day we hold a light to love,

Through shadows deep and tall.
This eve we bear, a thousandth time,
The Child of light to all.
Let day by eve 'round shadows
Wind, 'til dawn so lightly call
That morning bring a softer light
Than makes the shadows fall.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2002

Year 2002 (graphic of a book by candle

light):

I crossed the howling desert, through the crying and the pain;
I picked my way past reeds and rushes on the endless plain.
I gathered joy through summer, and I wasted toil through fall;
I knew that you would come, O Lord: I heard your whispered call.
Bless us here and bring us peace; for, knowing right and wrong,
We have you now to give us life and guidance to be strong.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2003

Year 2003 (humorous graphic of Santa's sled, towed by segways):

In decades past, the tears were sown.

The wood was cut; the children grown.
The harness halters -- out of hand
Have left the liv'ry no demand.
Hooves to wheels, and antlers flash
Naught but memory of the past.
Here a mouse rolls on a pad;
Here a key unlocks an ad.
Windows shrink and icons bloom;
Screens don't fold, but pictures zoom.
Well I know that Email's free;
But, please tell me, What's a "tree"?

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2004

Year 2004 (graphic of ruins of a church):

In that land, so far away,

People leave, but ruins stay.
Fancies flown and plans amiss,
There they go to seek life's kiss.
Here the broken rubble stands,
Crushed and crumbled in time's hands.

Yet the days' foreshadows walk,

Spilling lies the Truth to stalk.
Weak, the nighttimes' cold air clings,
While the dawn its warmness brings
With hope, that rebirth of Our Lord
Arrest the temper of the sword.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2005

Year 2005 (humorous graphic of lightning striking the North

[barber] Pole):

In the mirror stretches tightly

Row on row of light to view.
Yet the mirror sends back brightly
Just one image made for you.
Trapped in metal flow your charges,
Mewling back a wail of light.
But that metal world enlarges
Only things for you to right.
Time will tell the mirror world
To rest its busy flow,
When you've seen what you shall see
And known what you shall know.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2006

Year 2006 (humorous graphic of Santa lost in space):

We wear our hopes and spend our joys

on dimly passed, discarded toys.
A goal goes by and still we try,
but joy's a joke and hope's a lie.
So, we wonder, What's the Why?
Then, the clear and certain tone
Rings to us we're not alone.
Here's a Word that's borne to us:
Restless words to clear the dust.
Merry Christmas! What's the fuss?

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2007

Year 2007 (graphic of bells hung from a stone tablet):

An old man looks to Christmas
to put a death aside.
A young man looks to Christmas
for his children and his bride.
A mother counts the days that pass
and yearns for time to slow.
A child cant see the calendar -just the gifts below.
All our friends and neighbors
gather what their times can tell.
Let us gather love to give
and give that love as well.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2008

Year 2008 (graphic of star of Bethlehem):

Night comes after dusk's return.

Day breaks down as pinpoints burn:
Embers of the day that rise,
Quenched in Heaven's somber guise
Of softness.
Wishes flee in soundless awe;
All behold the newborn Law
Cradled in a bed of straw,
Lightly lit and sought no more.
In softness.
Let us celebrate this time
When God begins a slow, slow climb
Onto a wooden rack of pain,
There to free us all of blame.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2009

Year 2009 (graphic of stockings on a hearth):

As leaves from autumn trees did fall,

Wishes lie to grow us tall.
Wishes gather wants and needs;
Wishes linger -- planted seeds,
And on them desire feeds.
Search your heart this time of year;
Give a wish to someone dear.
Love and friendship -- those we yield,
For Christmas turns a fertile field.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2010

Year 2010 (graphic of tree decorations):

Happy hearts, we all do gather,
But, in silence, would we rather
Move in peaceful past return?
Trace an orbit lest we learn?
Stars, they live eternal past;
In each year they find the last:
Darkly graved in space so vast
The living mind can't close its grasp.
No counting can it save.
Abandon, friends, all backward leaning!
Fix your gaze on future dreaming.
Mark this time of joyful meeting
As a step toward happy greeting
Of a life beyond the grave.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2011

Year 2011 (graphic of truck carrying trees)

The children sleep in silent patience,
be they bad or good;
The mothers watch their silent waiting,
as a mother watching should.
The other grownups watch and stand
around the Christmas tree;
Posting presents one by one
and smiling happily.
Is this just a task of time
that comes but once a year?
Or is it a time to cherish -- something held
and something dear?
We shall see when sleepers wake,
and join themselves in play,
And their happy hearts expand us,
far beyond this one great day.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2012

Year 2012 (graphic of snowman wearing wreath)

Month by month and day by day,
The year -- it slowly falls away.
Like a clock with weighted hand,
It cycles in a well-known band,
And with a lonesome, dying chime
It marks away the end of time.
Like our lives, we can't delay
That chime -- a slowly fading ray.
But, for now, the year's away,
So the time is time for play.
Let us live and laugh -- be gay;
Such joy befits a Christmas day!

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2013

Year 2013 (graphic of drums with peace message)

On Christmas Day we crossed the brook,
And up the slope a path we took
To lead us to our favorite nook.
There beneath a sheltering screen,
There we joined our families -- keen
To recall friends we'd hardly seen
In years gone past away.
To the fires' hiss and bang
We dined together, joked, and sang
Until a joyful silence rang
In quiet peace for all.
On this day the Lord committed
To be born and thus admitted
As a tender, simply-fitted
Lover of us all.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2014

Year 2014 (graphic of bells and wreath)

We sought a love to turn the stars -To move them from their path.
But through it all, the time we spent
Was lost in our behalf.
So now we speak and live and love
From day to day the same,
And bring our separate feelings home
As well they match in name.
Now, season's greetings greet us all -It's happiness we feel:
So let us seek a love, at least
In words, forever real.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Christmas Poetry

year 2015

Year 2015 (graphic of hand with pine-needle trinity)

I nursed a little tree that grew behind my garden shed.
It flourished, and upon its limbs a trinity was bred.
I cut a branch and took it home to decorate my door.
I made a frame to mount the branch and hang there -nothing more.
My trinity -- it hangs above me when I leave my home.
I pause to see its shape before me every time I roam.
And you, my reader -- what's above you when you face the
world?
I hope that it's a happy thing and not some flaw unfurled.
In any case, this holiday I wish you all my love,
And may you pause, at least some times, to see what lies
above.

Copyright (c) John Michael Williams. All rights reserved.