{"id":7684,"date":"2025-12-24T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doxaweb.com\/blog\/?p=7684"},"modified":"2025-12-24T07:22:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:22:26","slug":"the-eve-of-chistmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doxaweb.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/24\/the-eve-of-chistmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This afternoon
as flakes of powder
buried the Nativity scene
in the front yard
I shoveled
a deep canyon, white
to the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now dusk advances
and firelight dances back and forth
across cherry-paneled walls.
Enormous Norway branches
stretch colored constellations
across the room
above a drift of packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silence is interrupted only by
the occasional shifting of glowing embers.
Looking out, I see that
my boot prints have been lost
in approaching darkness, drift and
accumulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier today I went skiing
through the pine woods behind the slough
and through the sloping meadow.
After descending Swanson’s hill,
I paused to look behind me \u2014
above my solitary tracks
which sliced the pale earth,
motionless pines stood alone
against the grey, snow-heralding sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My ears grasped for the fading song of the chickadee,
but it was gone,
and the stillness enveloped me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt required to remain in the quiet,
as if the moment would last while I stood still.
But I felt my wool socks soaked with melting snow
so I decided to move,
to return to the house and
to light the fire and
to see if the mail had come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now night has arrived
and the fire has burnt itself grey.
The meadow is still quiet, I imagine.
I go to bed early; tomorrow will find the house busy.

from the collection Only Say the Word<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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