Why? A Christmas Poem 2013
The fountain stands quite frozen now
The waters of the lake are still. 
The trees that still have limbs
Are now denuded of their leaves.
And artificial lights inside
Are not quite able to inspire
Beyond an artificial joy.
Yet Christmas break has sent our students home
And lays a challenge at the door
Of freezing tissue in our hearts and minds:
Who is this God whose birth we honor
And why on earth would He or She
Decide to join in our impermanence?
But then we start to count the kindnesses
The cookies, smiles and gifts,
The invitations to our tables and our plans;
We see a smiling Pope
Whose hat was nearly knocked askew
By the lad who filled his arms,
This Pope whose words keep urging us
To love and heal and always hope.
And then—by Gosh!–we feel God here
Peeking, as we did when three or four,
Beneath the wrappings and the coverlets
To find the Gifts we now acknowledge were
Just tokens smeared with love, and so
We start to understand Emmanuel
And why.
