Blog of Oonah V Joslin -- please visit my Parallel Oonahverse at WordPress

where I post stories and poems that have not been seen elsewhere - also recipes and various other stuff. http://oovj.wordpress.com/

and see me At the Cumberland Arms 2011









Monday 21 December 2020

A bunch of Christmas Thoughts 2020 Dec 21st -- An Alignment in Poetry

Tonight's the night! A rare planetary alignment of Saturn and Jupiter is set to give us a spectacular Star of Bethlehem event. Some people are saying this -- but they are two dots in the sky and they aren't stars but planets and it'll probably be peeing down in Northumberland and we won't see them anyway. It doesn't mean a thing that, from the point of view of our tiny 'blue dot', two of the larger planets in our insignificant solar system appear in line. 

I am not saying that the awe we feel in viewing the night sky is misplaced. It deserves our attention and our study. The great array makes us feel like small creatures, and we are small creatures, but our brains allow us to think -- and if only we would. If only we would let go of superstitions, predjudices, animosity, cruelty and war. If only we would become creators, not destroyers, maybe we could be greater.

On this Solstice, Yuletide, mid-Winter's Day I've aligned two poems for you. I hope you enjoy the juxtaposition.


Wise Men don't do it that way


Three idiots set out one day
to find a baby so they say
and followed a comet or some star or other
to find this newborn and his mother.
They didn’t bring them Christmas hampers
booze or chocolates, flowers or Pampers,
but embalming fluid, incense and gold.
At least that’s how the story’s told.
Apparently they found King Herod instead
and some other babies ended up dead.
That’s what you get if you follow astrology
instead of using Sat Nav technology.
You end up in entirely the wrong place
with all the eggs in history on your face!



Every Child


There are the Winter stars

strung out like Christmas lights

across the night's expanse.


There's Mars red as firelight glow.

It must once have seen it's own snow

its memories preserved in permafrost.


There's the Plough – the Big Dipper

looking much like a sleigh.

We name non-existent patterns far away


so they seem real to us. Each child of Earth

looks towards the skies

in wonder, anticipation or despair.


It isn't Christmas everywhere.

Christmas is not for all. If only

we considered every child as special.