Special FEATURED ARTIST – Deirdre Page (Poet) Poem: Dancing in Christmas Rain
Close to a year ago, I held a writer’s contest called, “The Learning to Dream Contest” for creative submissions for my sixth book, Learning to Dream. We received many wonderful entries and had a winner who had her work featured in the book. In the process of the contest, a particular artist stood out in her work as a poet and personally impressed me in the personal journey of her life that she shared with me. For Deirdre, the contest was a call to begin to write again after being discouraged and laying down her dreams of writing.
Yesterday, close to a year later, she wrote me and shared the impact of what the contest meant to her regarding a new purpose in her life and the continual risks and struggles she chooses to face.Â
The following is a poem from Deirdre written for her sister for Christmas who was having trouble finding the “Christmas Spirit” this past year. According to Deirdre, “I likely would NOT have written it or anything at all this past year had I not had your contest …to lure me out of my hibernation“.
Dancing in Christmas Rain
When I was a child
I needed tinsel, and toys,
(and please let ME put the Angel on the tree,
please, this year, let me)
Be a perfect child in a perfect family
with perfect pitch temporarily
to sweetly sing the sacred carols:
the tension of anticipation, sublime joy
and fear;
it may all fall apart,
we may fall short this year!
God’s gift and promise spoiled, ruined,
somehow whisked away
before we even unwrap it.
I needed tinsel, and toys,
(and please let ME put the Angel on the tree,
please, this year, let me)
Be a perfect child in a perfect family
with perfect pitch temporarily
to sweetly sing the sacred carols:
the tension of anticipation, sublime joy
and fear;
it may all fall apart,
we may fall short this year!
God’s gift and promise spoiled, ruined,
somehow whisked away
before we even unwrap it.
And every year as the magic time drew near
I’d pray pray pray
I’d pray pray pray
for snow.
For a repeat performance of Christmases long long ago.
I needed a white Christmas to —
make Christmas complete?
Hide life’s broken, tarnished, bare, mundane?
Wrap our sins in plush ermine?
momentarily offer a glimpse
of life transformed beyond human fragility,
beyond the ugly in reality,
til the day I realize I can, I WANT to see
life as it is, in all it’s manifold glory…
For a repeat performance of Christmases long long ago.
I needed a white Christmas to —
make Christmas complete?
Hide life’s broken, tarnished, bare, mundane?
Wrap our sins in plush ermine?
momentarily offer a glimpse
of life transformed beyond human fragility,
beyond the ugly in reality,
til the day I realize I can, I WANT to see
life as it is, in all it’s manifold glory…
(And, here at this northern latitude
we MUST have snow,
white scenery,
to achieve the Christmas Attitude,
mustn’t we?)
we MUST have snow,
white scenery,
to achieve the Christmas Attitude,
mustn’t we?)
With halting awakening I’ve lately
discovered Christmas inside me:
see it in life’s bare, ungilded reality
using my heart, my mind, my soul
to meet the teacher halfway, every day;
every day IS Christmas day,
once you realize.
discovered Christmas inside me:
see it in life’s bare, ungilded reality
using my heart, my mind, my soul
to meet the teacher halfway, every day;
every day IS Christmas day,
once you realize.
Snow, tinsel, Christmas lights are great,
But only hearts’ intentions heal pain, hate.
Christmas rituals, traditions
coax the spirit, revive
what we start to forget; perchance to suspect
much more
than the brilliant fleeting fragments we ever really understood;
warming our spirits to stare down fear.
My heart is where I’ll celebrate Christmas
this year.
But only hearts’ intentions heal pain, hate.
Christmas rituals, traditions
coax the spirit, revive
what we start to forget; perchance to suspect
much more
than the brilliant fleeting fragments we ever really understood;
warming our spirits to stare down fear.
My heart is where I’ll celebrate Christmas
this year.
I’ll dance in this Christmas rain with greater joy
than ever I danced in childhood’s magic Christmas snow.
Because I finally get it,
I finally know:
we need neither fear nor delay putting childish things away;
making room to celebrate our whole imperfect humanity
bathed, glowing in divine spirit; from every fiber rejoicing
the precious baby Jesus’ birth,
true fullness of God’s gift and promise
on earth.
than ever I danced in childhood’s magic Christmas snow.
Because I finally get it,
I finally know:
we need neither fear nor delay putting childish things away;
making room to celebrate our whole imperfect humanity
bathed, glowing in divine spirit; from every fiber rejoicing
the precious baby Jesus’ birth,
true fullness of God’s gift and promise
on earth.
God’s gift needs no gilding,
no bows, or giftwrap,
only heart.
Dancing in Christmas rain
a fine way to start!
Come dance with me today,
every day! And celebrate within
so to someday make outwardly manifest
the true fullness of God’s loving promise,
wrapped in coarse, swaddling clothes
the most precious gift possible
every Christmas ago.
no bows, or giftwrap,
only heart.
Dancing in Christmas rain
a fine way to start!
Come dance with me today,
every day! And celebrate within
so to someday make outwardly manifest
the true fullness of God’s loving promise,
wrapped in coarse, swaddling clothes
the most precious gift possible
every Christmas ago.
 Christmas 2014; Deirdre Page, with gratitude….
Poem Dancing in Christmas Rain Copyright © 2014 by Deirdre Page All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, or otherwise without written permission from the author except for brief quotations in printed reviews.