Poetry Foundation: Celebrate The Winter Season
Poetry Foundation:
Celebrate the Season
A wintry mix of our favorite poems from the archive.
The Poetry Foundation
A Visit from St. Nicholas
BY CLEMENT CLARKE MOORE
This perennial classic reminds us how much "clatter" the holiday season can bring. There's nothing to fear from all that noise--it's just Saint Nick and his reindeer.
White-Eyes
BY MARY OLIVER
Not all of nature slumbers under blankets of snow. In this poem from Poetry, a wind-bird "wants to go to sleep, / but he's restless." He summons the clouds with his song, and snow falls like feathers.
Chanukah Lights Tonight
BY STEVEN SCHNEIDER
You're invited to a midwestern Chanukah party. There's not a deli in miles, but friends are coming in from the cold and childhood memories are flooding in from the past. And there's an invitation for the Messiah too, if he wants it.
In Winter
BY MICHAEL RYAN
It gets dark awfully early in winter. But there's still brightness even with so little light. When she gets home from work at four o'clock, she'll kiss you no matter what.
Lines for Winter
BY MARK STRAND
Watch Mary-Louise Parker perform this poem.
For Strand, the best way to keep warm is to pay attention to the internal rhythms of the body and mind. Nothing warms the heart more than listening in to "the tune your bones play / as you keep going" through the winter cold.
Messiah (Christmas Portions)
BY MARK DOTY
Ordinary women and men become extraordinary as they sing Handel's Messiah. Doty writes, "This music / demonstrates what it claims: / glory shall be revealed." And as we hear the voices merge in song, we discover we can tackle New Year's resolutions too--"Still time to change."
"Your Luck Is About To Change"
BY SUSAN ELIZABETH HOWE
Howe's poem finds humor in the ambiguity of a fortune cookie message. Though hope can still be found in times of economic or political instabilities, there's also something ominous about the dinosaurs that the neighbor's kid has added to the nativity scene.
Year's End
BY RICHARD WILBUR
Print a poster of this poem.
A new year is coming. But Wilbur notes that frozen lakes and fossils do not serve as adequate metaphors for the year's end: "We fray into the future, rarely wrought / Save in the tapestries of afterthought. / More time, more time." Raise your glass and welcome it in!
December 26
BY KENN NESBITT
Sure, Santa brought some of the presents we wanted. What about everything else? Children's poet Kenn Nesbitt provides this witty response for the day after Christmas.
Taking Down the Tree
BY JANE KENYON
Kenyon reminds us of the holidays' fragility. Old ornaments begin to fall apart and get packed away along with the memories they evoke. The tree begins to crumble. Once everything is gone, "all that remains is the scent / of balsam fir."
Read the whole story: Poetry Foundation
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First Posted: 12/22/10 04:36 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:20 PM ET