Skip to main content

Christmas Poem by Todd Swift

A Christmas Story

They couldn’t get through
Because of the snow

So all that icicle day
He stuck to the window

Too shy to pray
Too small to say

Why have you abandoned me?
Then, at the final hour,

As eve lifted to morning
Hooves clattered like squirrels

In the eaves, soot rained
And ho ho hos and bells

Made truth beautiful
As any white lie; a clot of coal

Single and uneven on the mantel;
Who had told on him?

Had his sins been so thorough?
Now, gifted judiciously

By his untrim hero,
A hirsute saint in a fat suit,

He came to learn his worth
Set about rubbing palms black

Wherein the spark of a diamond
(Hope) cut against skin’s frail grain.

Better to believe, be damned
Than rise to empty promise

A chalky kiss in the garden;
Heart pain unwraps as balm.

poem by Todd Swift
Labels:

Comments

Adrienne Gruber said…
Hi Todd,

I saw your comment on my blog recently....I don't check the comments too often! Which poem of mine where you interested in?

Adrienne
Mon Dec 20, 11:32:00 pm 2010
EYEWEAR said…
Adrienne, contact me on facebook or email and we can discuss this further, all best, Todd
Tue Dec 21, 09:49:00 am 2010
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".
1 comment
Read more

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise...
1 comment
Read more