Merry Christmas!

Porcupine is gradually being swept away by Christmas festivities. Holly and roast beef predominate in his thinking. Good friends like Jacob Marley (sans most of his chain after his good turn for Scrooge), and other Christmas Spirits are coming to share the celebrations. I wanted to leave you all something to enjoy while I am enjoying myself and my companions.

I am proud of my books, and one of my favorites is a first edition of Dorothy Parker’s first book – marbled brown boards, black binding, the quintessential ‘slender volume’ of verse. In it is perhaps the loveliest Christmas poem ever written, and I share it here as my gift to you all.

"It's queer," she said; "I see the light

As plain as I beheld it then,

All silver-like and calm and bright ---

We've not had stars like that again! "

And she was such a gentle thing

To birth a baby in the cold.

The barn was dark and frightening ---

This new one's better than the old.

"I mind my eyes were full of tears,

For I was young, and quick distressed

But she was less than me in years

That held a son against her breast.

"I never saw a sweeter child ---

The little one, the darling one! ---

I mind I told her, when he smiled

You'd know he was his mother's son.

"It's queer that I should see them so ---

The time they came to Bethlehem

Was more than thirty years ago;

I've prayed that all is well with them."