David Wheeler has challenged us to write a Noel Ghosts poem. I've pondered this challenge until today, the deadline for posting. I'm not extremely happy with this poem, especially compared to L.L. Barkat's beautiful trio of Noel Ghosts poems, especially the Ghost of Christmas Future she posted today--a lovely and complex sestina.
And my sincere apologies to those of you who are not poetry fans and who thought you might get a bit of a poetry break now that the Nov PAD Poetry Challenge is over....
stooping to love
a mere glimmer in the darkness
illumined by flickers of fading embers
in the dimly firelit room--
translucent, she steps tentatively
from the white lights of their fragrant evergreen,
a shade, a promise, a faerie, an angel of light--
silently she bridges each bedroom door,
brooding over each sleeping visage awash with dream,
bestowing upon each an angelic kiss of blessing,
each cheek no longer chubby with childhood
but thinned, lanky, with awkward teenage years,
with the promise of adulthood coming all-too-soon.
and she sighs, grieving just a little
for these once-babies, once-toddlers,
once comforted so sweetly in her faerie arms.
soundlessly closing the final door,
her hand glowing through the golden knob,
fading, she slips away...until the next Christmas Eve--
a motherly spirit, stooping to love
on this wintry night when, long ago,
Love was born infant, squalling into the night,
comforted in the arms of a poor, unwed mother.
Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett
May your Advent and Christmas season be both merry and mystical, with the faerie brush of angel's wing and fragrance of Christmas Love glimmering along the edges....
Wishing you all a blessed Advent as we await Him who is Love,
4 comments:
I can see her looking at each child so tenderly.
Just beautiful!
bridges each bedroom door, / brooding over each sleeping visage
kind of like a sonic palindrome, no?
David, you are too much. And Susanne, you encourage!
I could identify with that feeling of drifting through, hovering near, each child we love. Maybe this is also why we play "tooth fairy," because we want to have that mysterious eternal sense of watching over every loss and pushing-through.
Thanks, all. Yes, David, I've been into palindromes and the sound of poetry lately....
And thanks, L.L. I prayed that readers would receive a glimmering of hope...that they would be fed...receive a taste of manna, this day, from what He gives me to write.
Grace be upon you, all.
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