May you give into his hands
All that stands
Between your self and You
Let him take you and make You
Break you to shape You
And love you for You.

Amen

But this morning it is Christmas
So they are Christmas socks
They are my Christmas socks
And I need to get out of bed and put them on

Maybe I don’t want to
Maybe I don’t feel like it
Maybe I have no hope
That they will bring me close to anything I love

If I can’t put on socks I am nothing
Everybody can put on socks
So if these socks don’t get put on I have big problems
I won’t even be able to run over the border to Mexico and hide from my life
Because I don’t have socks on

These socks tell me I don’t have a hope
These socks tell me I don’t have a future
These socks tell me I am a useless nothing
Because they are bigger than I am

If you can’t even put on socks you can’t live
You can’t do well at your job
You can’t talk to normal people
Because nobody loves someone who is too useless to put on socks
Nobody even thinks about socks
Nobody writes poetry about socks

God, I hate Christmas
And I hate these Christmas socks
They are making a mockery of me
They are taunting me, trying to defeat me
These diabolical Christmas socks

Maybe we’re all crazy
I don’t know.
Maybe other people’s socks talk to them
I don’t know.
But on Christmas we remember a man who deals with stupid things like socks
His name is Jesus

Maybe for Christmas he’ll give me socks of the Spirit to put on
Compassionate socks that keep my feet warm
God socks that don’t lie to me
That make me stronger and not weaker

Maybe he’ll give me Christmas socks.

S’posed to be doing good works
S’posed to be manning the kettle
S’posed to be building up Christmas
S’posed to be proving my mettle

But no one can hear me jingle my bell
No old ladies can smile and donate
For I’m not wearing red, and no poor can be fed
When the kettle’s not here, ’cause it’s late!

Cash drawers, PAs, phones and babies
Tills that beep… and beep again,
Play the carol sounds of Christmas,
“Groceries on earth, Good food to men”

Stranded at the south-side Safeway
Naught to do but sit and rhyme
Out the window, snow is blowing
Softly drifting, slowing time

Now I’m frozen in the moment
Chilled by winter through the pane
How many in the cold are freezing?
And what can make them warm again?

So bring the kettle, hang it quickly
Give alms below, raise prayers above
Come, ring the bell of Christ’s compassion
For we are God’s… and God is Love.

Rhymes with, ‘niece’

But the ode of her uncle

Regrettably stunkle.

not to distract from the poem….

‘inexorable’ is a marvellous word.
‘in’ – negation
‘ex’ – out, outside
‘ora’ – spoken, prayed
‘able’ – possible

exorable – something which can be prayed out, successfully appealed against
inexorable – something which is impervious to prayer or appeal