Tools and Topics Tuesday: Winter Solstice

Read this pretty winter poem and see what lines speak to you.  Even if a poem makes no sense to me, I always try to find a few lines that are inspiring in some way, and take whatever I can from them. I saw this poem on The Writer’s Almanac and agree that it was quite fitting for the winter solstice. 
“They look at us
With their clear eyes…
 …And ask the piercing questions
God alone can answer.”

Noël

When snow is shaken
From the balsam trees
And they’re cut down
And brought into our houses

When clustered sparks
Of many-colored fire
Appear at night
In ordinary windows

We hear and sing
The customary carols

They bring us ragged miracles
And hay and candles
And flowering weeds of poetry
That are loved all the more
Because they are so common

But there are carols
That carry phrases
Of the haunting music
Of the other world
A music wild and dangerous
As a prophet’s message

Or the fresh truth of children
Who though they come to us
From our own bodies

Are altogether new
With their small limbs
And birdlike voices

They look at us
With their clear eyes
And ask the piercing questions
God alone can answer.

“Noël” by Anne Porter, from Living Things. © Zoland Books, 2006. Reprinted with permission on The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (buy now).  
What are your ragged miracles? 
What are your piercing questions?

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