Musings On Christmas...

©  Gloria Smith 2010

If you have nothing else to give away for Christmas; no money to buy presents with -- don't grieve... you still have love to give, and love you'll receive in return. Christmas is not a date but a state of mine. No, it's not like it was when we were children; it's much better. The magic has grown within us for now we can appreciate its essence. The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. So all grown up I will dream the dream of Christmas. I will go to sleep that little girl again with rosy cheeks and soft smooth skin, excited to know that once more I have awakened to a Christmas dawn. I'm still here... to love and be loved once again! 

Yes, I have grown older and have many burdens to bear, but love weighs heavier on my heart than any grief I carry so it is love I will share.

Heap on the wood!-the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still.-- Sir Walter Scott 

Merry Christmas everyone!

GLO

OLD CHRISTMAS MURBY WATTS MUSIC POETRY SONG SHEET 1862

OLD CHRISTMAS MURBY WATTS
MUSIC POETRY SONG SHEET 1862

click image for info @Amazon.com

Two Pages from an issue 1862 . THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS . THESE WOOD ENGRAVINGS FROM SKETCHES, OR EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS WOULD MAKE AN IDEAL GIFT FOR CHRISTMAS OR BIRTHDAY . The actual date is printed on each page . This engraving is over 140 years old. And is not a modern copy. THESE IMAGES ARE scanned at low resolution for quick uploading and are much better than the scanned image.. Size of print is approx 14" x 9.1/2" if it is shown as whole page, or prorata.. Approx. Page size = 16" high x 11" wide. Ready to matt and frame. These old Prints really look great with Matt and Framed. . Note this print is from a periodical and has printing on reverse.

O Holy Night!: Masterworks of Christmas Poetry

O Holy Night!:
Masterworks of Christmas Poetry


According to Ray Olson

The Christmas season is the time of year when poetry is actually heard in public, thanks to the resolutely secular works of Clement Clarke Moore ("'Twas the night before Christmas") and Dr. Seuss (How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Religious folk remind us, of course, that the season is basically of sacred significance. They might add that there is a vast body of beautiful religious verse for it, too, from which editor Moser here makes a small selection of real gems. He presents them in four parts concerned with, respectively, the prophecies of the Christ, the Annunciation and Immaculate Conception, Jesus' birth, and the promise of the Christ; each section is prefaced and "postfaced" by appropriate passages from the Bible. The poets represented, though predominantly writers of English from Cynewulf to Richard Wilbur, include Virgil as translated by Dryden among the prophets, many early churchmen, and non-English bards ranging from Dante to Pasternak; Moser, often with helpers, does most of the translating. This is a reverently lovely gift for the season.

A Poem From The Book

"A Child of the Snows" by Chesterton:

There is heard a hymn when the panes are dim,
And never before or again,
When the nights are strong with a darkness long,
And the dark is alive with rain.

Never we know but in sleet and in snow,
The place where the great fires are,
That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth
And the heart of the earth a star.

And at night we win to the ancient inn
Where the child in the frost is furled,
We follow the feet where all souls meet
At the inn at the end of the world.

The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red,
For the flame of the sun is flown,
The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,
And a Child comes forth alone.