Below zero

The Feast of the Holy Name has always been one my favorite Holy Days.  Having it coincide with New Year's Day is a Happy Happenstance or something that Is as it Should Be.

Last night I had to mime

Below zero

In charades.

I failed dramatically.

Today

I wonder how I would mime

The Name above all Names

He who is named

And yet

Still nameless

For no name can claim

The Entirety

Or even his Infinitesimal

Smallness.

Today I wonder

How I would mime

All of who Jesus is.

Twelve days of Christmas

Things are settling finally.  It looks like the Christmas celebration which did not end up so Christmasy, may be extended a bit.  There are twelve days of Christmas, and it only begins on the 25th of December.

I am glad Christmas lasts

Twelve days.

This year

It means we may really get to it

Long about

New Year’s Eve,

When everything has settled down

Finally.

The new year will arrive

With a lick and a promise,

Kick this year out the door.

But still

With six days left

Of the season

Which began in crisis.

Twelve days makes it long enough

To redeem itself

In the new year.

Who says we don’t know

Christmas?

We know Christmas,

The short and long of it.

Sometimes it finally arrives

On New Year’s Eve.

Everyone knows

Here I am, on my own schedule again.  I figure the fact that I noticed church was only one service yesterday, at 10 and not 10:30, was a plus.  Although I didn*t notice carols at 10 before the 10:30 PM service Christmas Eve, and this morning we didn*t realize the trains were on holiday schedule, New Years Day, having fallen on a Sunday, is being celebrated, officially, today.  I should know.  After all, everyone else seems to know, time is not as it usually is at Christmas.

I should have known.

Everyone knows

That there are carols

Half an hour

Before the late service

On Christmas Eve.

Everyone knows

That when people are gone

After Christmas

There is one Sunday service at 10.

Everyone knows

The Monday after Christmas and New Years

Is holiday schedule

For the trains.

It seems everyone else

Got the message.

Clearly I should know

This is designated down time.

Yesterday was not officially

New Years.

Today is.