Republished from Dec 21, 2013.
Tag: holiday
Dec 25 2013
“Christmas Eve And Other Stories”
In an old city bar
That’s never too far
From the places that gather
The dreams that have beenIn the safety of night
With its old neon light
It beckons to strangers
And they always come inAnd the snow it was falling
Neon was calling
The music was low
And the night Christmas EveAnd here was the danger
That even with strangers
Inside of this night
It’s easier to believeThen the door opened wide
And a child came inside
That no one in the bar
Had seen there beforeAnd he asked did we know
That outside in the snow
That someone was lost
Standing outside our doorThen the bartender gazed
Through the smoke and the haze
Through the window and ice
To that corner streetlightWhere standing alone
By a broken pay phone
Was a girl, the child said
Could no longer get homeAnd the snow it was falling
Neon was calling
Bartender turned and said, “Not that I care
But how would you know this?”
The child said, “I’ve noticed
If one could be home, they’d be already there”Then the bartender came out, from behind the bar
And in all of his life, was never that far
And he did something else that he thought no one saw
When he took all the cash from the register drawerThen he followed the child to the girl across the street
And we watched from the bar as they started to speak
Then he called for a cab then he said, “J.F.K.”
Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away
And we saw in his hand, that the cash was all gone
From the light that she had wished uponIf you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing lastBy helpin’ a neighbour
Even a stranger
To know who needs help
You need only just askThen he looked for the child
But the child wasn’t there
Just the wind and the snow
Waltzing dreams through the airSo he walked back inside
Somehow different, I think
For the rest of the night
No one paid for a drinkAnd the cynics will say
That some neighbourhood kid
Wandered in on some bums
In the world where they hidBut they weren’t there
So they couldn’t see
By an old neon star
On that night, Christmas EveWhen the snow it was falling
And neon was calling
In case you should wonder
In case you should careWhy we on our own
Never went home?
On that night of all nights
We were already there
Dec 24 2013
The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve
Remembering all our ghosts tonight
Dec 28 2011
a perfect day.
a funny perfect thing, this messy house.
it gave no stress.
and was filled
to the brim with
the left-behind touches
of those we love
in fact, the slight disarray
felt merry and warm;
as we had our morning coffee
and laughed about who said this
and who did that…
’round noon, we slurped some warm soup,
and late afternoon we sat with some tea,
all in the glow of our holiday chatter
i felt sad, in the end, to clean it all up.
the bright little bows and the crinkled up paper.
there were pieces of cookies, a discarded sock, and
all those burned out candles…
there was a washload of sheets, and
stuffing the pillows back into their cases
i dusted and swept
and yes, even wept,
as this perfect day
finally leapt to its end 
May 31 2010
A Veteran Speaks Out about Being “Un-American” on Memorial Day
(published at Truthout.org)
Memorial Day, observed since the end of the Civil War, is a day that we honor the soldiers who have fallen in the service of their country. As a veteran, I can think of no other way that better epitomizes what it means to be an American than to honor those who died for our country. But Memorial Day is more than simply a day for honoring our fallen soldiers; it is also about remembering the ideals for which they gave their lives.
Nov 25 2009
On Giving Thanks The European Way, Or, Freedom: It’s The New Black!
I have a Thanksgiving story for your consumption that has nothing to do with turkeys or pumpkin pie or crazy uncles.
Instead, in an effort to remind you what this holiday can really stand for, we’ll meet some people who are thankful today for simply being free.
It’s a short story today, but an especially touching one, so follow along and we’ll take a little hop across the Atlantic for a trip you should not miss.
Nov 24 2009
On Gratitude
A Thanksgiving offering (maybe this is becoming a traditional post)
A ritual and a practice.
At our house, when we have Thanksgiving dinner, we like to stop eating and talking to go around the table clockwise so that each person present can say what s/he is thankful for. When we first decided to do this, some of our guests felt this was awkward, perhaps embarrassing. But we don’t start with the guests, so they can get an impression of what expressing gratitude and hearing others express it feels like. Those in our immediate family understood this and were comfortable enough with it. After all, at birthdays, we like to go around the table to tell the person celebrating the birthday our many appreciations of him/her. So on Thanksgiving, it’s a natural enough question, “What are you thankful for this year?” The answers aren’t always surprising. We’re thankful for being here another year, for our health however it might then be, for family and friends, for the lives of those now departed, for whatever abundance we may have received, for creativity, for our pets, for our relationships, for our businesses, for our politics, for our dreams and aspirations and hopes, and so on. We’re thankful for all kinds of things. You get it, you can probably feel it even reading about doing this. It’s a Thanksgiving ritual we love. Feel free to try it out.
I always loved Thanksgiving because, however it was intended or begun, it seemed to be about gratitude. For years I’ve had a practice I’ve done. Sometimes I do it every day. Sometimes I do it once a month. Sometimes I don’t do it for a long time. It depends. What do I do? I make a list of the things I am thankful for. I number them as I write them down, and I feel my gratitude for each item as I write it before going on to the next. So, I write, “1. my good health, 2. the life of Dr. King, 3. compassion for my seeming enemies, 4. the novels of Cesar Aira.” And so on. Until I reach 50. I do this, writing and feeling, until I have a list of 50 items or more that I have enjoyed and felt my thanks for. When I am feeling pinched, stressed, exhausted, depressed, or any other “negative” emotion, it seems to take me a very long time to find items, to write them down and really to feel them. When I am feeling expansive, relaxed, rested, optimistic, or any other “positive” emotion, it takes me virtually no time to write and enjoy the list. Why do this exercise? Because it’s almost magical. And it lights me up. Feel free to try it out.
Was it Meister Eckhart who wrote, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice?” I agree.
May all of you have a happy Thanksgiving.
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simulposted at The Dream Antilles
Dec 25 2007
Mankind Was My Business
In keeping with the dd policy of being able to post any damn thing…and because I’m spending the night snuggled on the sofa with hot chocolate and Dickens…and don’t really care how horribly unsophisticated of me it might be, to post this passage entire…from the original Christmas Carol…