A CHRISTMAS CARD? (22nd card) [1]
I really have no l-o-n-g standing need,
To sit and sit and read, read and read
About the facts of “southern living,”
(Laura is now a baby sitter!)
I like the plain Christmas Card giving.
Spare me from the mammoth form letter.
Plain Christmas Cards have been no doubt proved,
(You did change pastorates? What you moved?
I thought you liked Loogootee people.
Didn’t Don and Mary treat you right?
God lead you? Sounds a little feeble.
Maybe Bedford or Sankey’s “bite”?)
I was saying, Uh, we keep our cards.
– Letters don’t rhyme like jingles by “bards” –
Our pretty ones we have on display,
(I heard you resigned – that’s not the word,
As head of W E A A.
Felt lost? Unless that’s what you preferred.)
It’s OK if one must write on card,
(Oh! You found leaving them all quite hard!
Well, we DO understand, don’t you fret.
– But let me get this next very straight.
[Cause I thought it was concrete set]
You’re working on a Master’s of late ? ? ?)
You do-o-o agree with me, do you not.
Cards say it all – that’s why they are bought.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, no words contrary.
(Jackson’s a long way to drive, I’d say.
Wesley Biblical Seminary!
Interstates! You don’t go every day!)
You will pardon please my views about
Holiday Cards and how they’re sent out.
Can’t stand letters with head line stories –
SON IS MARRIED TO A GREAT MAN’S GIRL
(Andrew got hitched? Tell me the “Gories”!!
Love to have been there, caught in the whirl.)
And another thing I don’t care for
Is the computerized letter, nor
Its matching label on the outside.
(Poncha what? Pon-cha-tou-la, What names!
So that’s were you pastor and abide,
You and all three the fair Bryan dames?)
I hope I’ve set out, clear as a bell;
Send a plain card, buy just what they sell.
(And Lincoln’s in Florida – dating?
Heather is doing paces at home?
And Laura is working and waiting,
Next year she off to college will roam?)
Cards yes. Letters are so dull and long.
(So you’re getting along like a song.
A great pounding a few weeks ago?
Glad you like people, parsonage, and all.
God’s entire family is nice to know.
You’ve had a fine move, summer, and fall!)
Well, I’ve said enough about my peeves.
And pardon my long parentheses.
(May you have a Great Remembrance
Of HIS coming as a Baby King.)
And if YOU send a letter by chance.
Don’t ask; You’ll know I read the whole thing!!
– eab, Dec. ‘87
[1] Written my first year at Wesley Biblical Seminary. If it seems too light, it was probably a release valve after all that study.
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Posted in christmas poems, history, love, nature, philosophy, poem, the home, time, uncategorized, tagged SEASONS TOGETHER on December 22, 2014|
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SEASONS TOGETHER (21st card)
Twenty-five firecracker chimes
Revolutionary birthday times
And twenty-five Augusts, nightly growing corn’s tower
Twenty-five September morns
Red schoolhouse bells and yellow bus horns
And kids of all ages held in learning’s strong power.
Twenty-five wonderful falls
Chirping squirrels, rustling leaves, wild geese calls
And twenty-five feasts of black pilgrim hat and feather
Martha and I have enjoyed
First alone and then gratefully toyed
Twenty-five celebrations of His birth together.
Twenty-five blue and white ways
Frost/snow filled, first-month, icicled days
Twenty-five months to remember Abraham and George
Twenty-five advents of spring
Mud on the ground and robin on wing
An’ lambs all respecting wind that came as from a forge
Ah twenty-five daffodils
April arrives with Easter frills
And twenty-five Mays with cricket and frog all attune
Then comes the long awaited
The one for which our breath was baited
That hot last long nineteen and sixty-one night in June
Twenty-five full great love years
A lot of happiness, a few tears
And the joys of Andrew, Lincoln, Laura and Heather
Now this month we celebrate
The birth of Christ, earth’s true Potentate
We’ve hallowed it these twenty-five seasons…together
– eab,Dec. ‘86
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Twas the darkest of nights,
Far from village lights,
In a stable, lonely, forlorn;
That the Kings of kings,
The Brightest of “brights,”
Descended to be born.
– eab, 12/22/06
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Posted in Bible, christmas poems, died today, education, God's Kingdom, history, Jesus Christ, poet American, today in history, uncategorized, worship, tagged Away in a Manger, on this date on December 22, 2014|
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ON THIS DATE
John Thomas McFarland died 12/22/1913, at Maplewood, NJ. He was educated at Simpson College, Iowa Wesleyan University, & Boston University School of Theology and pastored in IA, IL, RI, NY & KS. It was while Secretary of the Board of Sunday Schools (NYC) however that he came to national attention. It was there he wrote, “Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay” (3rd verse to Away in a Manger) in about an hour from when he started. Some believe Martin Luther wrote verses 1&2, some reject that but we DO know who wrote verse 3. Mcfarland was born 1/2/1851 at Mount Vernon, IN.
Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay Close by me forever, and love me, I pray;
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, And fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there.
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CHRISTMAS COLORS (20th card)
Color Christmas red.
For bright young cheeks on Suzie and Fred,
For dogwood seed pods as they shed,
For flying, feathery cardinals bred.
And He who was Bethlehem born
Was also red – bloodily torn.
Christmas was the beginning,
Calvary the sad ending.
Color Christmas red.
Color Christmas white.
For mistletoe berries and their rite,
For snow that fell from the realm of kite,
For icicles’ unique snappy bite.
Whitish was the symbolic dove
That descended then from above,
White the sand on which He walked,
Purer still, the way He talked.
Color Christmas white.
Color Christmas green.
For pointed holly leaves with their sheen,
For blue spruce and white spruce, oh so keen,
For every evergreen ever seen.
The fish and bread Breaker did pass
Fifty by fifty on the grass
While fig found it did not suit
To be full but without fruit.
Color Christmas green.
Color Christmas gold.
For all the shiny tinsel that’s sold,
For candle flame, regardless of mold,
For merchant’s profit in crispy fold.
The old temple He did replace,
A golden prayer-house in disgrace.
King He was; deserved the crown
In spite of religion’s frown.
Color Christmas gold.
Color Christmas dark.
For wintery trees in “formal” bark
For gray-to-brown mountains, unclad, stark
For snow clouds’ own horizontal mark.
Dark was the world before His gift,
The veil did rend! Sin’s night did lift!
Its no longer dark – He came.
Since; things haven’t been the same.
Hark, angels, men hark.
– eab Dec. ‘85
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Thank God for Redemption’s plan
Which came down this time of year
Giving hope to hopeless man
Caught in trouble and in fear.
– eab, 12/21/06
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CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS CRUCIFIED (18th card)
Mary, the carpenter’s wife,
Has been delivered of a Man child.
She conceived and then bore,
Heaven’s Seed and remained undefiled.
She gave birth in a peasant “home”
Of linage Royal and old.
Bearing her reproach she thus gave,
Divinity a fine human mold.
He came, He loved, He cried,
He walked by the azure sea side.
He cared, He worked,
He sought those who had never been taught.
He touched, He scattered, He plead.
The Holy Scriptures He read.
He stood, He bore, He died.
The Christ of Christmas, crucified.
– eab, Dec. ’82
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