Monday, December 25, 2023

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Christmas

                                                                                                  This Brave New World, CXXXI                                                                                    
                                                                                                  a girl whispers
                                                                                                  Santa*, can you stop the war?
                                                                                                  his finger to his lips

                                                                                                  Chen-ou Liu


My Dear Friends:

On this Christmas day in the shadow of both wars and tough economic times, I would like to share with you a set of Christmas poems, written in different themes and moods, for your imagination and reflections 


Advent Calendar
the final window
a refugee mother

Helen Buckingham

toll booth lit for Christmas --
from my hand to hers
warm change

Michael Dylan Welch

Christmas lights . . .
the ambulance flashing
in all the windows

David Serjeant

Christmas songs
deepening
the loneliness

Pamela A. Babusci

birdsong gone
as the snowfield darkens
I stand in awe
this Christmas eclipse
with the Neanderthal

Guy Simser

gazing
at snow crystals on the skylight
this Christmas morning
how small and how large
my world without you

Chen-ou Liu

Christmas night
the silence behind
the wind

Jerry Kilbride 

sip after sip
of all-you-can-drink coffee 
Boxing Day blues

Chen-ou Liu

boxing day
the flapping of plastic bags
caught on a branch

Elliot Nicely

an old argument
untangling
the Christmas lights

Ben Moeller-Gaa


Happy Reading and Merry Christmas

Chen-ou


Note: Issa Kassisieh, Israel’s only certified Santa Claus, works for the Santa’s House of "Ho Ho Holy Land" in the Christian Quarter, East Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. 

For more, Haaretz, Dec. 24: "What This Jerusalem Santa Tells Kids When They Ask Him to Stop the Gaza War"

Reuters, Dec. 25: In Christmas Day message, pope decries Gaza's 'appalling harvest' of civilian deaths

I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims, and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by an opening to the provision of humanitarian aid.

And Business Insider, Dec. 25: The Pope prayed for peace in Gaza and called children devastated by war the 'little Jesuses of today'


Added: This Brave New World, CXXXII
written in response to Palestinian Pastor Munther Isaac's Christmas sermon:

In these last two months, the psalms of lament have become a precious companion to us. We cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Gaza? Why do you hide your face from Gaza?”


my God, my God
why have you forsaken me?
bloodied Jesus
trapped under Gaza rubble
in the Christmas cold

FYI: Democracy Now, Dec. 26: Watch Palestinian Pastor Deliver Powerful Christmas Sermon, “Christ in the Rubble”

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