Winter Poems

I meant to share a Christmas poem nearer to Christmas, and then I found a collection of winter poems, so I have put some here for your enjoyment. I hope you too, like the shepherd, are pierced by the beauty you see around you- how it stirs your soul. And if you say "what beauty around me?" look, as Sara Teasdale did, and " you will find it, it is not far..."



Night

Stars over snow,
And in the west a planet
Swinging below a star-
Look for a lovely thing and you will find it,
It is not far-
It never will be far.

--Sara Teasdale


I Heard a Bird Sing

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember:
"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,"
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

--Oliver Herford


The Sheep Herd

I am a shepherd- I have hated
The smell of damp sheep in the rain,
The pain
Of clouted shoes on weary feet,
The silly barking of watchdogs in the night,
The blinding light
Of summer suns on hillsides without shade.
Nor anything I did not wish was not
From hoar-frost on the meadow grass
To dizzy stars that blinked on stupidly and bright.

Last night
I went with other men who tended sheep
Over to Bethlehem to see-
We did not know just what we'd come to see
Who'd followed up a cloud of singing wings.
Until we came to where a young girl held
A little baby on her lap and smiled.

She made me think of flowers,
White flowers on long stems and blue night skies.
Nothing happened-
But today
I have been shaken with the joy
Of seeing hoar-frost wings
Atilt upon tall grasses; the sun
Upon the sheep, making their gray backs white
And silvery
Has hurt me with its beauty, and I heard
The sound of the barking watchdogs break
The tolling bells against the quiet hills.

--Sister Mariella