43 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 2020

 

The note on the back of this year's card reads as such: "What really can be said about a year such as this? It will be as you see it and grow into legend with each retelling and remembrance. Legends tend to have staying power and a long reach. Make it a good one!

Peace and prosperity, Rich"

After losing the first three weeks of December to the virus, I was astonished at what I had lost as far as mental acuity. I truly didn't know if the spark to do a poem this year would return. But my truth is that I always bounce back and I held dear to that and let doubt slip away. It may be a minor victory among all of the personal battles so many are waging but I could feel good about it and that's what turned out to be the most important thing. That became my pearl of wisdom and inspired this year's (albeit late) Christmas poem. My hope is that you find your own inspiration somewhere along your journey.

Christmas 2020

By Richard Perrotti

 

“Time is the great stealer,” he told me

It will rob you of all you hold dearly.”

But time is also the great healer, I replied,

Offering the chance to see things more clearly.

 

“Look at the star blazing brightly above us.

Magnificent! And not really a star.”

Exactly, I said, just two planets aligning

And our unique point of view from afar.

 

“You’re deluding yourself,” he muttered

The world’s filled with sorrow and pain.

Look around at everything missing

That can never be cherished again.”

 

Consider this, I requested

Every thought requires a host

To give it life and to spread it

‘Else it withers and dies like a ghost.

 

Everything that’s ever been in this world

Remains in some altered form.

For what is a pearl in an oyster

But a grain of sand reborn?

 

A child will grow and stretch towards the sky

While feeling some pain from that growth.

Yet he’ll exalt at his world expanding.

It’s not one or the other. It’s both.

 

“But darkness seems to surround us,” he said.

I’m exhausted from this terrible fight.”

Then release the struggle. Surrender, I said

And you’ll find that you turn towards the light.

 

With that the darkness just lifted

And the feeling of light flooded down.

If you focus on something that’s missing,

You will never see what’s been found.