Poets’ Corner: Nuggets from Rosemerry for Xmas

24 Dec Poets’ Corner: Nuggets from Rosemerry for Xmas

No matter how darn organized you are, it is likely there is at least one person on your Christmas shopping list who has stopped you dead in your (very tired by now) tracks. Or some stocking that is not stuffed full enough. Google “last minute Xmas gifts” and 100s of ideas show up, among my favorites: a gift of your time, like offering to babysit for your friends’ progeny; tickets to a sporting event or concert; a charitable donation in a friend or loved one’s name; or one of many books, including books of poetry written, say, by our Our favorite Wordwoman, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Her latest, “even now,” is featured at Telluride’s book emporium, Between the Covers. Read on and enjoy two holiday poems. Promise, you will smell the gingerbread and come to believe in miracles.

The Room Scented with Allspice, Cloves, Cinnamon 

Rolling out the dough

for the gingerbread house

I find myself wishing

that I were enjoying myself

the way I always imagine

I will enjoy it when I

roll out the dough

for the gingerbread house

with my children,

but every year it is always

better in my thoughts

than in the real kitchen

where my son and daughter

bicker over who gets

to roll next and who

gets to cut next and who

cuts the straighter line,

and I have to remind

myself it is fun, right?

and that this is the stuff

that good memories

are made of. Ten years

from now, what a great

time we will be having

this day.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Her poetry is a Xmas present to her community of friends all year ’round.

In the manger of my heart

there in the muddle

where I do my best

to keep it swept

but it gets messed up

every day anyway,

there amidst

the drafts

and the animal chorus

something new

and beautiful

is being born—

not because

I prayed for it,

not because

I am worthy,

only because

that is how

miracles work—

sometimes

by grace

we peek through

the cracks in the walls

and see just

how light

even the messiest

places

can be.