Christmastide

Christmastide Between light or dark imaginings Our lives flash past, Beneath bright sun, moonlight stark Reflections fill the glass Spread wontonly about the city's feet Omnipresent stone Catches all those movements fleet As starlings soar above, alone. The dreams of many urchins Flow upwards through the slate-grey skies Appealing to silent Djinn Who rule their lives and sigh Willows swaying in a starry night Beckoning shadows back to open fields Where spirits fight Against the moon, wind, and beat their shields. Snow settling on each frozen shaft Of iron skeletons of our new Leviathans As they grow brittle through excess of craft. They rear their heads; lay cryptic plans In silent converse high above The light-jeweled streets which run With undefined, 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 in silks or rags, Which they'll receive with shouts of joy, And smiles endearing as rainbows, Both 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 Gabriel's horn - Sounds of train blasts followed by a clacking sussurance Much laughter flows through many rooms Tonight as love haunts every musty hall, Goes creaking past each doorway; 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 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 last mistakes, look up, and yearn.