The Star Store, at the Christkindlmarket, Chicago 2012
[also 2011 & 2013]
My current
Fortnightly post ~
"Wish Book" ~ includes the lyrics to Cris Williamson's nostalgic song
"Wish - Book," which can be found on her CD,
Snow Angel. On the same CD, she also recites this haunting, lovely poem:
Star Silver
The silver of one star
Plays cross-lights against pine green
And the play of this silver
cross-wise against the green
Is an old story . . .
thousands of years. [ellipses in original]
And sheep raisers on the hills by night
Watching the wooly four-footed ramblers,
Watching a single silver star --
Why does the story never wear out?
And a baby, slung in a feed box
Back in a barn in a Bethlehem slum,
A baby's first cry, mixing with the crunch
Of a mule's teeth on Bethlehem Christmas corn,
Baby fists, softer than snowflakes of Norway,
The vagabond mother of Christ
And the vagabond men of wisdom,
All in a barn on a winter night,
And a baby there in swaddling clothes on hay --
Why does the story never wear out?
The sheen of it all
Is a star sliver and a pine green
For the heart of a child asking a story,
The red and hungry, red and hankering heart
Calling for cross - lights of silver and green.
by
Carl Sandburg, 6 January 1878 - 22 July 1967
beloved American writer, editor, poet
winner of three Pulitzer Prizes
Star Silver Pine Green
Photo by Jay Beets
