Angels

There are plenty of unprompted poems in my head today, but I am not avoiding prompts! 🙂 This is especially for JusJoJan day 3: Servant. I wrote a Pleiades poem, a poem of 7 lines with 7 syllables per line, all starting with the same letter. The title is supposed to be one word. Pictured is my family’s Christmas tree, topped with an angel.

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Aid to God’s faithful people,
Attendants and guardians
Above humans, yet servants.
Army of heavenly hosts
Attempts to help everyone
Avoid plenty of dangers,
Announcing momentous words.

Wintry Picture 🎄

This is for Linda G. Hill’s coloring club for the month of December. I keep forgetting to post my picture(s) so decided to do it now, especially since I didn’t write any post-worthy poems today. I colored several pictures this month, and here are two of my favorites. 

When the Boxes are Gone

The prompt for Writing Wednesday was “festive,” and I am combining it with this week’s SoCS: Box.

In the aftermath of Christmas,
When every box has been opened
And every bag has been unwrapped,
The festivities remain quietly
In my heart and memory.

And I wish, and I wish
That they would sing again
In the present, but I must accept
The gift I was given,
And the extent of it.

Christmas Morning

For day 25 of the Christmas challenge — also, merry Christmas to all! The first line, which I put in quotes, is a sentence that someone said in a video reflection on this event, and that one line screamed to be put into a poem.

“Christ is born once more for us,”
Poor and helpless child:
In a manger He is laid,
By the world reviled
Other than by shepherds, and
Wise men who were trav’ling
From the East, to worship Him;
A new hope announcing.

Come to Jesus, Him embrace,
See His whole innocent face.

Surprises

This is for MLMM’s Tale Weaver: Gift, FOWC: Great, and day 24 of the Christmas challenge. I think the poetry form is called a mirror cinquain. I talked more about gratitude in yesterday’s post, but I am grateful for Christmas itself. Even this crazy year, I think that Christmas will be a special and happy time. We won’t spend time with as much family, but in some ways that’s okay because, in the past, I have felt extra lonely on Christmas, because of all the people. I’m the only person in my family who celebrates Christmas as a religious holiday (not just the secular version), and although I have nothing against the secular expressions of Christmas, it is very lonely when the holiday has a vastly different significance for you than for your family.

Look now!
The time has come,
Quiet birth of God’s Son,
Celebrate for endless ages
This gift.

This gift:
Wondrous surprise as mighty God
As a baby is born,
Weak and helpless,
Like us.

³⁰ And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
³¹ And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
³² He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
³³ And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

         Luke 1:30-33 (KJV)

Christmas Cards

On day 23 of the Christmas challenge, our prompt is “words.” What this makes me think of, keeping with the theme of Christmas, is Christmas cards. It’s always exciting to receive a card in the mail, although I sometimes get sad shortly after opening the card because it might just make me miss the person even more. 

I’m also grateful for words themselves, as I love playing with them (hence, this blog). I have also been working on getting more honest and expressing myself during the past few years. Poetry and journal-writing are gifts to me! The most common gifts that I receive, by the way, are journals and notebooks.

Sent —
Sending
Glad tidings :
Season’s greetings,
Happy holidays,
Have a merry Christmas!
Handwriting connects,
Magic collects
As does love,
Cards hold
Cheer

Dear Santa….

One of the most common Christmas traditions might be writing letters to Santa. I know that my brothers and I did it every year, and our parents Santa Claus would even write replies to us and tell us that the cookies we left out for him were delicious.  The letter to Santa that I wrote yesterday and am sharing today is definitely not traditional, and I decided to write it as a cherita.

Christmas Shopping is Super FUN!

Day 21 of the Christmas challenge is FUN! This is an easy word to use in a post because the Christmas challenge itself is fun, as are many other prompts and challenges and, to me, almost any sort of creative writing. These haiku that I wrote today for Ronovan Writes overlap with the FUN prompt, making it even more fun. 🙂 I’m also sharing with the Writers’ Pantry.

Children open gifts —
Adults discover solace
Watching kids have fun

All the craziness is worth it (I hope). Shopping hasn’t been as “crazy” as in previous years because I’ve done almost all of it online, but I still need to order one or two things. To a certain extent, I liked shopping in the stores because I could browse and find a good idea for a gift that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

Frenetic prelude —
Open presents, seek solace
Silent night at last!

An Angel Atop the Tree

This is a photo of my family’s Christmas tree this year, along with the angel that we always put at the top. We have had this angel for as long as I can remember, probably since before I was born. 

The angel came to announce
The nativity of salvation,
Not for those already virtuous
But for those willing to renounce
Their pride, to trust
In the Creator of creation:
Glorious is the Incarnation!

The one year (that I can recall) that my family did not put up our tree, along with the angel, is when we spent Christmas with my grandparents. That year, we chopped down a tree ourselves and topped it with a Santa hat. 

This post is brought to you by the 25-day Christmas challenge, day 20. The poem was inspired by the angel on the tree and FOWC: Virtuous.

Valuable Gifts

This is a décima for Ronovan’s prompt, with the word Gift as one of the B rhymes. Quite a timely prompt, obviously. 🙂 This décima took about 3 days to complete, so my brain very slowly revealed this gift to me.

As Advent is a brand-new start,
God is ready to give a gift:
The strength and peace of Christ to lift,
The God of peace will guard your heart.

When shoppers fill a shopping cart,
Remember most of all the why:
Remember what will satisfy
Beyond what fits inside a box.
Sincere and loving care unlocks
Treasures that no money can buy.