Solstice

When horizon billows ashen,
The daystar becomes recluse,
And as daylight is in ration,
December frost will seduce,
The entire hemisphere.

As the evening shades expand,
The soul pines the missing light,
With every falling grain of sand,
Knees and spines curve contrite,
Pray cool atmosphere.

Once god Saturn was beseeched,
In gifts, candles, songs, and fete,
Virtues of this god were preached,
In slim hope that he could abate,
The climate austere.

As lord Mithras ‘ere remembered,
As this Persian unconquered sun,
His light-filled reign was assured,
At midwinter to have but begun,
Igniting luminous sphere.

Jews received the gift of oil,
The lamps burning eight days long,
Brothers — Seleucid plans did foil,
To a Holy temple, the faithful throng,
In never-ending cheer.

Into this darkness a light has shone,
Word to rekindle that which is fair,
Into the darkness births a new dawn,
Yet devils shadow o’er each prayer,
But in all, Love will adhere,

Evermore.

Christmas in Hell

Walking through the snowy city,
Neon and flash muffle the stars,
A pace madly void of pity,
A world of carbon coughing cars.

Peace on earth in holiday mode,
With endless sales to void the soul,
Merciless will the voices goad,
To part every one from their dole.

All blinded by sparkles and bling,
Deafened by such vacuous calls,
Foot before foot, n’er hear the bells ring,
Steeples and churches dwarfed by malls.

Once the meaning was so splendid,
Now a time for rich and for poor,
To part, the least unattended,
A sign faith has failed to endure.

Beleaguered, the first holy night,
An occupied land, a common birth,
Common family in uncommon plight,
Newborn with beasts, next to the earth.

The voices were those of shepherds,
Angelically were moved to find,
Streaming from hick town’s backwaters,
The lowly behold the greatest signs.

Today, the Christ child lingers,
Far from knickknack cherubs and elves,
And the hype and sale of anglers,
Nearer ones who humble themselves.

Streetwalkers, embezzlers, users,
Bankers who’ve lost every wager,
Room for abused and abusers,
Forlorn find Christ is no stranger.

Wherever be there hell on earth,
The Christ strays far from the mirth.

Afghanistan, Algeria,
Angola, Burma, Canada
China, Colombia, Congo, GAZA
Georgia, India, Indonesia,
Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast,
Korea, Laos, Lebanon,
Moldova, Namibia, Nepal,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine,
Peru, Philippines, Russia,
Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Thailand, Turkey,
Uganda, United States,
Uzbekistan, Yemen. (1)

When Christmas is hell, hope is in dearth,
The heart's cry should be for peace on earth.

(1) Some of the places at war or where war has been fought now, and relatively recently.

Endless Earth

When the bird is too pained to fly,
A sparrow falls from the sky,
And broken breath, and broken wing,
And beak to weary ‘ere to sing.

Now a nest of sod and grass,
Until last breath has come to pass,
Cradled, swaddled in the clay,
The bird’s life sets, as does the day.

As once woven within a shell,
Until sparrow escaped that cell,
Now be unwoven into the sod,
As if by the very hand of God.

And as flesh and feather fester,
Hungry humus now fed by weather,
Strips sparrow of flesh, then bone,
Until this pixie’s ghost is gone.

And yet the song remains alive,
In myriad sparrow song that thrive,
For there is a Spirit, there is a child,
Delighting in every place that’s wild.