Poetry Archives - Page 7 of 7

Here’s a villanelle I wrote a few years ago to celebrate the joy and the promise of Christmas. It appears as a spoken-word poem with original music by Phil Cooper on Nathanael’s Creed’s new Christmas CD, “Home Again with You.”

Merry Christmas…

A light in darkness fights off the cold
thrust into the world yet of its own making.
The new life is fragile but the message is bold.

A gentle king, as the prophets foretold,
stirs in the straw and yawns in his waking.
A light in darkness fights off the cold.

A star from the East beckons prophecies old,
the expanse between heaven and Earth is breaking.
The new life is fragile but the message is bold.

In this child a mystery will unfold,
for wise men there is no mistaking.
A light in darkness fights off the cold.

The angels proclaim what shepherds behold,
for this night the whole world is aching.
The new life is fragile but the message is bold.

A gift from on high more precious than gold,
a life that brings life for the taking.
A light in darkness fights off the cold,
the new life is fragile but the message is bold.

"The Same Favorite Moon," acrylic and paper on canvas, by Steve Givens

Here’s a poem I wrote a few years ago for my daughter Jenny, now 18, when she was learning to drive. This “sliver of a silver crescent” moon has since become “our thing,” and whenever either of us sees it (I have no idea when or how often the moon takes this shape…) we call each other. I’ve come to love the moment when my phone rings and I hear Jenny’s voice say, “Daddy, look in the sky! It’s our moon!” (see also my attempt at a painting to capture the poem…)

You probably don’t remember but
we were out driving one night
and I looked out the window and saw
my favorite moon.
A sliver of a silver crescent
of the bottom of a globe
a delicate, fragile, candy bowl of a moon
just sitting there in the early spring sky
waiting to catch whatever fell into its belly.
I was mesmerized by it and told you so.
You, this delicate, fragile moon in my life,
this satellite spinning steadily around me.
And you looked up briefly and smiled
and said, “Yeah, it’s my favorite, too.”
And I thought: How glorious.
How mind-numbingly and achingly perfect
That we share the same favorite moon.