Let Poetry Preserve the Season
By Jonathan Joy
I’m probably not the only one out there whose first Christmas memories involve an Atari 2600, the video gaming system on everybody’s holiday wish list in 1981. The whole family gathered around playing Pac Man, Space Invaders, Breakout, and more. Mom was especially fond of Frogger, a game where your joystick controlled a frog, and you maneuvered it through all kinds of dangers to safety on the other side of a highway and across a river.
Castle Grayskull came a few years later, the perfect adventurous play place for my He-Man figures and my imagination. It is still on display in my office today.
I’ve seen the same kind of excitement in my son’s eyes, surprising him with Disney Infinity in 2015, and watching him tear through the wrapping of gift after gift: toys, pajamas, and books, oh my!
Of course, it’s not just the presents that stand out, but the presence of loved ones that often flood back this time of year. I see the Christmas lights on the tree and instantly think of my wife and son. I set out moms’ Christmas village and reminisce. I hear classic Christmas tunes and am transported back to long-ago, long-gone road trips to Grandma’s house. I remember watching my parents play cards with my aunt and uncle, and that one year we all got caught up in the board game Risk for over four hours. I watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and think of a stream of activity in a packed house in Point Pleasant, Clark Griswold’s antics on repeat in the background. I think of my acting debut in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, how excited I was, and how proud my family seemed on that chilly December night. And I recall my quite young son uttering, “What kind of magic is happening?” unable to sleep in his room upstairs as “Santa” worked downstairs.
No matter the year, how far back or how recent, Christmas memories are often tender reminders of a time when we take a deep breath and think about thankful things. We appreciate one another and the time we have together, and honor those no longer by our side. The warmth that radiates through that, and both the happy and sad memories that come with it, can often be captured best by poetry. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and sure it is, but I’d employ you to take some time this holiday season to let your words do the work of preserving what you see, hear, smell, and feel. (Yes, for Christmas, readers, I am giving you homework.)
For example, read this free verse poem, written at the end of the day, Christmas 2014. I have pics of that Christmas, but nothing quite takes me back like reading these words I wrote a decade ago.
The dining room floor is still littered with the remnants of Christmas day
Ninja turtles have batted endlessly
Hot Wheels cars have raced miles on long, thin, orange plastic tracks that zig and zag every which way
Darth Vader watches over it all
As the smell of ham fills the air
And I quietly say goodbye to the sounds of "Oh, Holy Night" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" until next year
The energy, wonder, excitement, and imagination of an absolutely thrilled four-year-old on his fifth Christmas still lingers
I hear plastic toys banging against each other upstairs, likely Optimus Prime making his hundredth transformation today, even though bedtime was an hour ago
What a day
We've had many joyous days in this home, but this Christmas has got to be near the top
A free verse poem may be of any length, on any subject. It can rhyme, but that’s not a requirement. There are no rules, but to express yourself and capture some moment or emotion with words and in a structure of your choosing. Try writing your own free verse this holiday season.
A shorter option for your Christmas chapbook can be found in by crafting a miniature haiku poem. A haiku poem has only three lines. Unlike the wide-open free verse, the haiku has a specific structure to follow. The first line must have five syllables. The second, seven syllables. The third line, five syllables.
Snow blankets the lawn
Oh, joy for a white Christmas
Get out the sleds, kids
If you’re up for more of a poetic challenge, try your hand at penning a sonnet. Shakespeare was known for his many sonnets, but there are different kinds. Primarily a sonnet should be fourteen lines, with a specific theme. Each line should have ten syllables total. It follows the structure below with three quatrains, a stanza of four lines, and a couplet, two lines, at the end.
December 23, 24, 25 Christmas 2022 Sonnet
I was fifteen the last Christmas this cold
Enjoying wrestling and hair bands no doubt
This year in an icy, artic front rolled
Threatening frostbite if one dared to go out
We huddled close inside with Clark Griswold
And laughed along with A Christmas Story
A holiday favorite, Home Alone, called
And The Santa Clause in all its glory
Hot soup, underneath blankets, bundled tight
Floor furnace struggling close by, family near
Within our sights, many Christmas tree lights
Plenty of cocoa and just enough beer
Twas The Night Before Christmas was spoken
Our unique family bond unbroken
There are tons of poetry styles. My students often like crafting odes, acrostics, tankas, and more, as well as those above. I also suggest looking up George Ella Lyon’s narrative Where I’m From poetic approach. It’s often their favorite. Whatever style you choose, be it for you alone or to share, take some reflective time, pen in hand, this holiday season. See what you can come up with.
Jonathan Joy is a Professor at Ashland Community and Technical College and author of the Read Me A Bedtime Story column in the Ashland Beacon.
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