Christmas Message

Regardless of your spiritual inclinations—or lack thereof—this poem by Thomas Hardy will surely move you. It concerns an old folk belief that farm animals would kneel at midnight on Christmas Eve in honor of Jesus' birth. Hardy himself was more or less an agnostic, yet this piece captures the wistful spirit of hope many feel at this time of year.

The Oxen

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel

"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.

On a more prosaic note, I've made a few alterations in the link list. Some Depression is now gone due to its duplication of other and more comprehensive aggregators. I also had to drop The Acoustic Woodlands as it unaccountably disappeared. in its place I added a link to a blog I have regularly visited via You Ain't No Picasso. I've been going so often i decided it deserves its own link.

I wish everyone a lovely and peaceful holiday season! See you next year....