Although the roof is just a story high, <br />It dizzies me a little to look down. <br />I lariat-twirl the rope of Christmas lights <br />And cast it to the weeping birch's crown; <br />A dowel into which I've screwed a hook <br />Enables me to reach,lift,drape,and twine <br />The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs <br />Will accent the tree's elegant design. <br /> <br />Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause <br />And call up commendations or critiques. <br />I make adjustments. Though a potpourri <br />Of Muslims,Christians,Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs, <br />We all are conscious of the time of year; <br />We all enjoy its colorful displays <br />And keep some festival that mitigates <br />The dwindling warmth and compass of the days. <br /> <br />Some say that L.A. doesn't suit the Yule, <br />But UPS vans now like magi make <br />Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves <br />Are gaily resurrected in their wake; <br />The desert lifts a full moon from the east <br />And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze, <br />And valets at chic restaurants will soon <br />Be tending flocks of cars and SUV's. <br /> <br />And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk <br />The fan palms scattered all across town stand <br />More calmly prominent, and this place seems <br />A vast oasis in the Holy Land. <br />This house might be a caravansary, <br />The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead <br />Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces <br />And ceintures of green,yellow,blue,and red. <br /> <br />Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem <br />Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed; <br />It's comforting to look up from this roof <br />And feel that, while all changes, nothing's lost, <br />To recollect that in antiquity <br />The winter solstice fell in Capricorn <br />And that, in the Orion Nebula, <br />From swirling gas, new stars are being born.<br /><br />Timothy Steele<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/toward-the-winter-solstice/
