Skip to main content

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. 

Labels:

Comments

  1. Irene Latham20 December 2025 at 00:02

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 December 2025 at 15:14

      Merry wishes back to you, Irene. It's a great memory to share.

      Delete
  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
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 December 2025 at 15:15

      Thanks, Rose. You're absolutely right. We keep looking and it's right there.

      Delete
  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
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 December 2025 at 15:17

      Best wishes to you too. Brooklyn had such sweeping extremes, but i loved my time there, no doubt about it. I returned with a treasury of stories and poems.

      Delete
  4. Tabatha20 December 2025 at 07:27

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 December 2025 at 15:18

      Thanks, Tabatha. So glad you came along for the journey.

      Delete
  5. Linda B20 December 2025 at 09:47

    I ran into an old friend today at the grocery store, & we chatted and caught up, as one does, and also helped each other choose food and say things like "I love this, try it!" I love your mash-up of holding a special moment dear in your poem, Alan! It must have been a nice feeling to remember and to write! Merriest of Holiday wishes to you and yours!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 December 2025 at 15:21

      Running into old friends unexpectedly is always a joy. That busstop memory glows brightly, for sure, Linda. Wishing you all the joy and happiness that comes with the season.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous21 December 2025 at 00:09

    You lived and worked in NY? That's neat. I didn't know that. The raw there is oh, so intense in the winter. What a neat mash-up of holiday cheer against that dreary backdrop. I'm not sure why opposite feelings work for me in poetry but they do! Speaking of...great last line on this piece. It has layers of meaning. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright22 December 2025 at 14:15

      Thanks you for the kind response to my poem. Opposite or contrasting images and emotions do provide poets with rich terrain to explore. Glad you found pleasure in reading this poem.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous21 December 2025 at 08:18

    Cathy Stenquist-what a cool mashup poem, Alan. It was so descriptive. I felt like I was right there on the street feeling the cold air on my cheeks And all the sounds of winter. Well done! Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright22 December 2025 at 14:16

      Thanks, Cathy. Hope you were rugged up while reading my winter offering. Merry Christmas to you too.

      Delete
  8. Michelle Kogan21 December 2025 at 11:34

    What a heart-felt-take on your Christmas poem, it really lights up from the inside and spreads all around, thanks for sharing it Alan! Merry Christmas to you and your family and Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright22 December 2025 at 14:17

      Thanks, Michelle and compliments of the season to you and family as well.

      Delete
  9. Karen Edmisten 21 December 2025 at 13:20

    Oh, that mash-up works so well! I felt the raw winter air, and the warmth of human connection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright22 December 2025 at 14:20

      Thank you, Karen. Your observation of the contrast between the raw winter and the wamrth of the human connection is most gratifying. It was exactly that differential that inspired the writing of the poem.

      Delete
  10. Carol Varsalona23 December 2025 at 01:24

    Alan, the raw beauty and a NY state of mind is a lovely reflection on the landscape, people, and weather. Thanks for sharing your memories in your mashed up poem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright23 December 2025 at 10:25

      Thank you, Carol for your kind and supportive response.

      Delete
  11. Patricia Franz23 December 2025 at 13:29

    Love "a chorus for angels, kings, and commuters" -- makes my heart tingle :)
    Thanks for sharing this, Alan. Happy Holidays!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright24 December 2025 at 13:37

      Thanks, Patricia. Heart tingles are good in my book. Happy and safe holidays to you too.

      Delete
  12. Mary Lee25 December 2025 at 01:20

    What a picture you painted with your woven words! Fantastic! Heart-touching!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York.  I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...
24 comments
Read more

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

  This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully  @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant.  A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...
14 comments
Read more

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...
26 comments
Read more