Christmastide

Christmastide Between our light or dark imaginings The flash that is our lives goes past Beneath bright sun and moonlight stark Reflections fill the glass Spread wontonly about the city's feet Of omnipresent stone Catching all those movements fleet As the starlings soar above, alone. The dreams of many urchins Flow upwards through the slate-grey skies Appealing to the silent Djinn Who rule their lives and sigh Like willows swaying in a starry night Beckoning shadows back to open fields Where spirits fight Against the moon and wind, and beat their shields. Snow settling on each frozen shaft Of iron skeletons of new Leviathans Already growing brittle through excess of craft They rear their heads and lay their cryptic plans In silent converse high above The light-jeweled streets which run With an undefined and secret love Towards the drop of the horizon and the winter sun. Concealed somewhere within this swirlingness Old men drift home with paper bags Containing gifts of blessedness For grandchildren clothed in silks or rags, Which they'll receive with shouts of joy, And smiles endearing as a rainbow, For both the old and young are wise, the world as yet their toy Their hopes run not too swift, nor slow. The lighted squares of many homes adorn The solid jet of Winter's darkness. Pierced now and again by the Gabriel's horn Sounds of train blasts followed by a clacking susserance Much laughter flows through many rooms Tonight as love haunts every musty hall, Goes creaking past every doorway, and at last assumes The quiet shape of All in One and One in All. O keeper of this softened moment, Warders of men's peace of mind, Shades in our solitude, teach us to relent Our urge to seek and find The roots of all our fears; And rather let us learn To rest content, let fall the tears, Rue our last mistakes, look up, and yearn.