Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? I have a strip of them hanging on my front door and my dog has one he loves to wear around his neck. A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland. Unable to sing doesn't mean musically disinclined. Ever wonder why so many lead guitarists avoid the microphone while playing? Uh huh, that's right. I've heard some great songwriters perform in concert and found myself wishing I'd never bought a ticket.
But whether Luciano Pavarotti or the poorest of imitations, there are times when we can't do anything else but. Even if, on our best days, we couldn't "carry a tune in a bucket," as my father used to say, when experiencing joy, we want to sing. More pervasive than pleasure and far deeper than happiness, joy fills us up until there's no room at the inn for anything else. It's what my friend was feeling yesterday when she announced she was pregnant and it's what I felt as I read her news.
A frosty Christmas Eve, when the stars were shining, I traveled forth alone, where westward falls the hill, and for many, many a village, in the darkness of the valley, distant music reached me, peels of bells were ringing. It was 1913, on the eve of war, when poet Robert Bridges left the warmth of fire and home and journeyed into the night. Then spread my thoughts to olden times, to that first of Christmases, when shepherds who were watching, heard music in the fields. And they sat there and they marveled, for they knew they could not tell, whether it were angels or the bright stars a singing.
In the presence of joy, even if the voice is silent, the heart sings unbidden.
(Noel: Christmas Eve 1913, by Robert Bridges, adapted by Lee Holdridge; Walking in a Winter Wonderland by Felix Bernard and Robert B. Smith)
When you write I visualize a picture in my mind.. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHappy Blessed Christmas from Australia to America...across the miles.
Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteAnother great Christmas poem is "Star Silver" by Robert Frost.
oops! The author is Carl Sandburg.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.allexperts.com/q/Poetry-678/Carl-Sandburg-poetry.htm
It is a lovely one, Elaine, and I'd never read it before now. Especially the final two lines, they're haunting:
ReplyDelete"The red and hungry, red and hankering heart
Calling for cross-lights of silver and green"
Thank you Crystal, very much. That's precisely what happens to me when I write, I form an image of whatever comes out in words and I hope it creates another one for whoever reads them. I've never admitted that before, by the way. And Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well! :-)
It is a lovely one, Elaine, and I'd never read it before now. Especially the final two lines, they're haunting:
ReplyDelete"The red and hungry, red and hankering heart
Calling for cross-lights of silver and green"
Thank you Crystal, very much. That's precisely what happens to me when I write, I form an image of whatever comes out in words and I hope it creates another one for whoever reads them. I've never admitted that before, by the way. And Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well! :-)