Of Christmas, Rest and Wintertime (or, with Half-welcome Wonderment)

Happy Winter Solstice! ...each window framing Christmas cards... Across the land where summer set grandstands of leafy silhouetteAnd spread its table with the grace of chamomile and Queen Ann’s laceNow, with half-welcome wonderment we wake to unflawed filamentOf dazzling stars and diamond shards; each window framing Christmas cards Wakening hearts to joys forgot while days were dusty, long and hotAnd tuning happiness with ways not lost to Bygone’s ‘good, old days’The bluejay, still sassy and bold, home, still a haven from the coldThe kitchen, still like a warm hug where we fill dinner plate and mug And remember fond days gone by that bring a teardrop to the eyeWhere here and there an empty chair draws tender pictures on the airOf those we miss with aching heart and then we kiss love’s works of artAnd thank the Lord that He saw fit to bless us with love’s precious bit Ere holding turned to letting go; and now we treasure each ‘hello’With pleasure, not perceived before we grieved a Farewell-fettered doorAnd now we take a closer look at pictures in a phantom bookCapturing the tittle and jot that lays another year to naught Shaping perspective with the ink of berry-blue and blossom-pinkOf dream-hued greens, of golds and reds, of fields tucked in like featherbedsWhile learning how to marvel more as season’s skim time’s ballroom floorComposing ballads, brushed with sage/age, that never bare lyric to page But make us sweetly, humbly glad for each arpeggio/upsy-daisy we hadWhere joy is purer in the wake of holy valleys of heartacheAnd winter with its surly bite unfurls its showcase of delightAs, with half-welcome wonderment, we smile though we are weather-bent Embracing life’s unflinching law that unleashes a storm of aweSoft-wafting flakes and stinging gales, feet blazing knee-deep frigid trailsTo gain a pristine point of view where morning fills the old with newAnd with half-welcome wonderment find we are growing snow-content Contented not to understand the whys of winter’s wonderlandThe ‘hows’ that howl and hurl the Must of life like swirls of snow and dustWhere love is always unprepared when it comes to sorrow’s soul baredBut faith and hope will always bare/bear the beauty of God’s faithful care And as the inner child beholds the way that winter white enfoldsThe earth beneath a wreath of rest, Longing laughs, feeling like a guestIn a world, though broken and scarred, touching a free-for-all PostcardAs half-welcome wonderment brims, dissolving in no-holds-barred hymns All hail the pow’r of He who grants each season-gifted song and dancePraise God for love’s blessings to cheer each up and down throughout yearExalt the Name that saves us from the dread of cold, dark heathendomLet winter glisten like a gem in earth’s/faith’s four-season diadem The fire crackles in the hearth, the chicken cackles with egg-mirthThe oven hosts aromas wild with scents that wake our inner-childTo happiness we oft forget in summer’s leafy silhouetteOf slower pace/grace of frosty clime, of Christmas, rest and wintertime Janet Martin