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Raw Beauty /A Christmas Poem

 A seasonally adjusted poem is my offering this week. I found a poem I had written during my time living and working in New York called Raw Beauty. It encapsulates a stranger's Christmas gift in the depths of a miserably cold day, in a rather dreary location. 
Inspired by Linda Mitchell's mash up poem last week, I decided to mash my poem with a short, evocative Christmas poem by UK poet, Wendy Cope. I enjoyed the weaving process.
Season's greetings all.
Vanderbilt Avenue bus shelter














Raw Beauty- A Christmas Poem
After Wendy Cope

At Christmas little children sing and merry bells jingle

I'm standing at the bus stop

On Vanderbilt Avenue

Stick trees line the street

Silent soldiers on a bleak avenue

 

In a feeble shelter

Three women stand

I huddle in my flimsy coat

Nearby

An icy wind

Rampant, raw

Slaps my face

With a bully’s rage

The cold winter air makes our hands and faces tingle

Above the wind

And the ugly song of the traffic

I hear whistling

Faint at first, yet familiar

Melodic carols

Carried higher than the street noise

Let heaven and angels sing!

And I  can see happy families go to church and cheerily they mingle

 

A man

Thin and whiskery

His winter cap at a jaunty angle

Leans against a wall of grungy graffiti

Whistling his selection of Christmas cheer

Beauty in the raw

Rising above the cacophony of cars and trucks

Rising, rising

Until I hear only the whistling man

His joyous carols a chorus for angels, kings and commuters

Soaring above the drabness of the day

His lilting air

Lifts me from the ordinary

I enter the bus

Determined to thank him

Because the whole business of Christmas is unbelievably dreadful, if you're single

 

So I do…

 Alan j Wright


It is Poetry Friday and our host on this occasion is Michelle Kogan artist, poet and writer. Michelle gives us a little peace and light and a golden Shovel Poem with a famous tag line. 

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Comments

  1. Irene Latham20 December 2025 at 00:02

    Thanks for sharing your Christmas memory as a mashup poem - cool! Merry Everything!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rose Cappelli20 December 2025 at 01:04

    Beautiful, Alan. Your poem reminds me of a woman I followed in the grocery store this week, humming a Christmas tune. There is beauty everywhere if we care to notice.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous20 December 2025 at 02:28

    Alan, your poem so beautifully captures the coldness and warmth of Christmas in Brooklyn. I love all of it, especially how the carols are "soaring above the drabness of the day." Thank you and Happy Holidays!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tabatha20 December 2025 at 07:27

    Really enjoyed your poem, Alan. I was right there with ya.

    ReplyDelete

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