We'd like to wish all our readers – all 3500 of you – a Happy Christmas and here are some seasonal offerings by Tish Davis, Maureen Weldon and Chris Major…
Two haiku by Tish Davis
virgin snow
a young boy runs ahead
to warn the rabbit
***
these woods again
a leaf frozen
in the spider web
• Tish Davis lives and works in the US. Her haibun have appeared in Contemporary Haibun Online. Recently one of her haiku was recognized as a Poem of Merit in the R.H. Blyth Awards for 2007.
Like Soap Bubbles by Maureen Weldon
Winter: like soap bubbles
in a washing-up bowl.
This will not last,
this cup, that plate,
the garden reflecting in my eye.
Or my lover – he used to hold my heart –
who has a golden tongue –
a gift for music.
I brushed his body
with my long red hair.
It was Christmas then,
it is Christmas now :
green crates of decorations,
bottles of wine, flickering candles.
I see them on my kitchen window,
mirrored in fairy lights
and parcels of secrets.
From the hall, three little boys
Are singing Silent Night,
to the rhythm of their money-box.
Now my daughter shuts the door
the sound goes round and round.
In the sink the suds have sunk,
In the centre: a star.
To poems – one concrete – by Chris Major
PROTEST POEM
Every Christmas
it's the same:
given without
much thought,
the perfect choice
for a festive season.
Oh, there should be
stickers everywhere,
for they are not
just for Christmas;
because the novelty
soon wears thin,
and abandoned,
pushed aside
they are cruelly left,
good only to blame
odd farts on……….
……….bloody sprouts.
SOMEWHERE (footprints)
soon her
step will fill:
flowers 'n' cards
as guilty neighbours
churn to snowy slush
a blank white page
of garden path.
Too little then,
and too late,
all print that
is this poem's
shape.
• Chris Major is a regular IS&T contributor
