Tag Archives: poetry

A Lifetime of Christmas Poetry

My mom, Raynette Forister Eitel, passed away in September of 2022, age 85, drifting away into dementia. It was tragic to watch this woman who loved words, who was a poet and teacher, fade away into wordlessness after a lifetime of crafting poetry.

Mom had a tradition of writing a new Christmas poem each year and sending it to friends and relatives. The mailing list grew each year, and people always told us they looked forward to mom’s Christmas poems. She published some in a couple little books. There are too many to post just once a day during the month of December, but I’ll choose some of the best.

Christmas Is
by Raynette Eitel, 1962

Christmas is many things to many people—
Mistletoe, holly wreaths, bells in a steeple;
Carolers singing their songs in the night,
Trees trimmed with tinsel and baubles so bright.

Downtown the stores full of new Christmas toys
Tempting and teasing those good girls and boys;
Wondering faces ‘round proud Christmas trees—
But for us, Christmas is much more than these.

Angels whose voices sang out the glad tiding,
Herod who sent the Christ child into hiding—
Stable a birthplace God made for a King—
This, we find, a significant thing.

Christmas is glitter and giving and gladness.
Sometimes it’s practical, sometimes it’s madness.
But in our hearts it sings out once again—
“Let there be peace on earth, good will to men.”
Let there be peace on earth—good will to men!

A Lifetime of Christmas Poetry

My mom, Raynette Forister Eitel, passed away in September of 2022, age 85, drifting away into dementia. It was tragic to watch this woman who loved words, who was a poet and teacher, fade away into wordlessness after a lifetime of crafting poetry.

Mom had a tradition of writing a new Christmas poem each year and sending it to friends and relatives. The mailing list grew each year, and people always told us they looked forward to mom’s Christmas poems. She published some in a couple little books. There are too many to post just once a day during the month of December, but I’ll choose some of the best.

Christmas Conglomerate
by Raynette Eitel

Bells that have forever rung
Are pealing out across the night,
And all the voices ever sung
Are chanting of a holy light.

Tinseled memory defines
All the love we ever gave
Every candle prayer still shines
Their golden light inside the nave.

Shepherds with their flocks of sheep
Search ever for a baby King,
Poets with promises to keep
Are penning songs for us to sing.

Our joy takes wing as voices swell,
“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,”
Or “Silent Night” and “First Noel”
The carols that we hold so dear.

Sweet frankincense, the myrrh and gold,
A royal three led by a star
To find the truth in stories told
Of virgin birth in lands afar.

The tangled ropes of hope and cheer
We grasp in childlike faith and prayer
Then feel the Christ child drawing near
And Christmas spirit everywhere.

A Lifetime of Christmas Poetry

My mom, Raynette Forister Eitel, passed away in September of 2022, age 85, drifting away into dementia. It was tragic to watch this woman who loved words, who was a poet and teacher, fade away into wordlessness after a lifetime of crafting poetry.

Mom had a tradition of writing a new Christmas poem each year and sending it to friends and relatives. The mailing list grew each year, and people always told us they looked forward to mom’s Christmas poems. She published some in a couple little books. There are too many to post just once a day during the month of December, but I’ll choose some of the best.

Christmas Comes In
by Raynette Eitel

Christmas comes in before
Ribbons tangle across the floor,
Before children pounce upon
Packages with primeval intensity.

Christmas skips in on
Happy memories of tinseled trees,
Feathers of snowflakes
Fluttering like birds from night skies,
Cherubs sitting on Santa’s lap
With trust in their eyes,
Sticky fingers and red lips
From a half-eaten candy cane.

Christmas wafts in
On waves of cinnamon
Straight from a hot oven,
Glitters of colored sugar,
Gingerbread men with raisin eyes,
Platters of dark chocolate fudge
Waiting for the tasting.

Christmas dances in on songs of old,
Chords for heartstrings,
Simple stories retold as emotions unfold,
Joy in every language known to man,
Set in a little town called Bethlehem.

Christmas tiptoes in with quiet peace,
The bright light of a single star
Shining on a simple stable,
A sleepy hillside,
A flock of sheep,
While far away, kings bring gifts
To a child they have not known.

Christmas whispers in on prayers for peace,
Piles of cards sent friend to friend to friend,
Messages of love and caring
Shared once again
Like gold and frankincense and myrrh.

A Lifetime of Christmas Poetry

My mom, Raynette Forister Eitel, passed away in September of 2022, age 85, drifting away into dementia. It was tragic to watch this woman who loved words, who was a poet and teacher, fade away into wordlessness after a lifetime of crafting poetry.

Mom had a tradition of writing a new Christmas poem each year and sending it to friends and relatives. The mailing list grew each year, and people always told us they looked forward to mom’s Christmas poems. She published some in a couple little books. There are too many to post just once a day during the month of December, but I’ll choose some of the best.

Christmas Carols
by Raynette Eitel

Christmas carols take shelter
In the folds of night
And come out to dance
By candlelight.

They dwell in bells
Pealing their tones
Heavy with snow
White against the night sky.

Christmas songs linger long
In memories of childhood,
Hide in tears
And spill down cheeks.

A Lifetime of Christmas Poetry

My mom, Raynette Forister Eitel, passed away in September of 2022, age 85, drifting away into dementia. It was tragic to watch this woman who loved words, who was a poet and teacher, fade away into wordlessness after a lifetime of crafting poetry.

Mom had a tradition of writing a new Christmas poem each year and sending it to friends and relatives. The mailing list grew each year, and people always told us they looked forward to mom’s Christmas poems. She published some in a couple little books. There are too many to post just once a day during the month of December, but I’ll choose some of the best.

Children’s Christmas Concert
by Raynette Eitel

Snatches of songs like
Small squares of silk
Stitched in arpeggios,

Chords of quilted memories
Open even the jaded heart to
Visions of Christmas past.

Grace notes skitter across the sky
Like breadcrumbs bidding
Me to find my way back to childhood.

My tongue tastes candy canes
And my eyes see trees heavy
And glittering with innocent snow.

But now it is the ears receiving the gift,
Just as shepherds heard angels long ago
When blinded by a star.

It is these joyful children who
Scatter seeds of Christmas spirit,
In songs laced with miracles,

Wrapping their concert in curly ribbons
That ripple rapturously across the room to
Render us ready for another season of Noel.