Poetry for Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a blessed and restful holiday, filled with joy and reflection. But I know that isn’t the case for everyone, and that this time of year can be lonely or painful. If that was you this year, my heart goes out to you. Feel free to email me if you need a friend.

I have come to think that this time of year, with its strong emotions and spiritual potency, is perfect for poetry. So I’m excited to introduce three new poems that relate in different ways to the Christmas experience. Bonnie Thurston (my favorite poet!) sees Jesus in a homeless man on Christmas Eve. Alfonso Sito Sasieta considers the midwives and doulas on hand for Jesus’ birth. Suzanne Underwood Rhodes writes of sorrow and faith while visiting a loved one’s grave on Christmas.

Plus more great new content. Scroll down for a fascinating essay about a McDonald’s next to St. Peter’s Basilica, a review of Christian Wiman’s dark memoir, and more.

Email me: How was your Christmas this year?

Jon Mathieu
[email protected]

“In St. Peter’s the people hear of the high call to love their neighbor as themselves. In the McDonald’s they are close enough to their neighbor to know what he smells like.”

Christian Wiman’s feel-bad memoir

“Christian Wiman opposes the encroaching shadow with all of his strength and with all of his words.”

Christmas Story

“Old, widowed church ladies don’t
take in homeless men for Christmas.
But perhaps, my sisters, we should.
Perhaps this is St. Joseph . . .”

In the Lectionary for December 31 (Christmas 1B)

Simeon and Anna echo the worship material of ancient Israel.

Doula

“Deep speaks to deep. Womb
greets womb & blessed
are you who wriggled & writhed . . .”

poem by Alfonso Sito Sasieta

I visit his grave on Christmas

“The earth has sunk, level now as unleavened bread
of communion, no longer a mound,

that unnatural, risen loaf of the first raw day
he went down, but this ground’s recognizable . . .”

poem by Suzanne Underwood Rhodes