Category: Holidays

This California Christmas

I thought there’d be one more Christmas 
Below the foggy redwood line
In the temperate golden sunlight 
Of California’s winter time 

But life had other plans for me
And so the next I knew 
My life was packed in boxes tight
And northward bound I flew

Here the winter skies are gray
The hush of snow abounds 
No California winter sun
Shines down upon this ground 

The life I’d come to know so well
The sea salt and rolling fog
The Bay and golden foothills 
Now grace this monologue 

This Christmas in our new home
Amongst the peaks and pines 
Finds my tiny family brood
Building new and joyful lives 

Those California Christmases
With lit palm trees in lines
Painted purple sunsets
Now only in my mind

Here night descends at 4PM
We tuck in nice and warm
The PNW slows life down
Outside my new front door

More time to talk about our days
New adventures we began
New traditions being created
With new family and friends 

Another California Christmas 
Has rolled around again
I reflect upon it fondly 
As my new chapter begins 

-gws

Christmas Without You

Photo by Jameel Hassan on Pexels.com
I realize that this year’s Christmas 
Will be my first in decades without you
That shatters me like a dropped ornament 
I wanted us to be a Hallmark holiday romantic comedy
But we were, instead, a Nancy McKeon movie of the week
This year is heavy with disappointment 
Like that of not finding that hoped for gift beneath the tree
Or the disillusionment of learning Santa
Is just your parents’ amateur slight of hand
Or that moment in Love Actually when Emma Thompson 
Opens her gift to discover it's a Joni Mitchell CD 
Instead of the expensive necklace that Alan Rickman
Bought for his sexy secretary instead of his loving wife
You keep trying to gift me expired I love yous
I let them fall to the ground like dry pine needles
Christmas lights wear glimmering halos
From the tears that well when the Carpenters croon
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
I will not hang your stocking
Or buy you a well-considered gift
I will, however, cast a Christmas wish
For you to dream of better days
As you nestle in an unfamiliar bed
That old St. Nick blesses you
With a better life ahead

-gws

Christmas in California

2024’s Holiday Poem

Photo by Karen Lau00e5rk Boshoff on Pexels.com
Christmas in California
Is rolling 'round again
I look forward to sharing it
With family and friends

This season's feeling haunted
A hard to argue fact
Beneath the strain of politics
And people clapping back

This shopping season's last chance buys
Spark lukewarm interest
As shoppers look toward '25's
Incoming tariff threats

With Pluto in Aquarius
Regimes are burning down
The People are now taking aim
At every tarnished crown

It's hard to lift a cup of cheer
With such uncertainty
So I'll nestle with a spicy book
And a mug of steaming tea

Inside the lights shine merrily
And Christmas carols sing
This California Christmas
Will be about one thing

The love of friends and family
As we circle 'round our trees
And this year's hard-learned lesson
To save some love for me

-gws

Dear Woman in the Mirror

Photo by Elizaveta Dushechkina on Pexels.com
Dear woman in the mirror
How are you today?
Did you sleep well?
I’d like to ask you to be my Valentine?
My Gal-entine?
My number one relationship
Will you dream with me of our happiness?
Will you help me manifest our joy?
I promise to shower you in compliments
To speak softly and gently to you
I will hold your wellbeing above all things
I know I haven’t always been your cheerleader
I have often been your worst critic
And I’m sorry for that
I’m learning how to treat you better
I’m learning how to better support you
To do more than acknowledge you have needs
I wish to meet those needs
I wish to show you the deepest kindness
I wish to reflect your incomparable worthiness
Because you are always worthy
No matter what others say or do to prove otherwise

Would you like a cup of tea?
How about a blanket and a good book?
Do you need a moment in the sun,
Or perhaps a nap buried beneath mounds of blankets?

You and me are the OG
We’ve got to take care of each other
Because no matter who comes and goes
We will always have each other
We’ve endured a lot together
I know you are so tired
I promise you that we will learn to move
From surviving to thriving
You and I

Let’s start today, my Valentine
By promising to say these three words 
Every time we see each other

I love you
I love you
I love you

(I love me)
(I love me)
(I love me)

-gws

Another California Christmas

Another California Christmas 
Is coming round again 
And I find myself daydreaming
Of family and friends 

The caroling and Christmas cards
Gifts amusing and sublime 
Remembering the best of years
The best of Christmas time

No smoke this year to choke us up
Just filtered sun and chill
Lights and sounds and decor sit
Upon each window sill 

A melancholy in my heart
I long for times of old
When life was not so stupid hard 
When wrapped in silver and gold 

Wherever this Christmas sentiment 
Finds you this time of year 
Crack open that bottle of Napa red
For some extra California cheer

Despite my humbug mood this year
I raise my glass above
I toast you sunshine dreams of joy
And immeasurable love

-gws

This poem appears in the 2024 edition of the Bards West Anthology.

Solstice Blessing 2022

May your hearth glow bright and warm as the sun deities slumber.  
May your threshold be welcoming and your table full.  
May you dream deeply of abundance, joy, love, and laughter.  
May the stillness of nature restore your ability to hear your heart song.  
Rest well and know that, soon, the sun returns!  
Blessed Solstice! 
- gws

On Joy

Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com
My word for the new year is "joy"
This is not a word I feel in my bones right now
The feel of it in my mouth is foreign
I cannot swallow it because it catches in my throat
But it doesn't want to crawl back out
It wants to be consumed so it can plant itself inside of me
It wants to grow and flourish like a flowering vine
Wrapping itself around my heart and soul 
And pulling me out of fear and despair
Joy wishes to drop its seeds into my darkness like a lotus
Where they can take root and bloom within my disturbance
Transforming my world from muddy hopelessness
Into vibrant newness and luminous hope
-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom

On Joy written and read by GWS #wordswishesandwisdom #poetry #poetrytok #poem #poet #NaPoWriMo #writer

♬ original sound – GWS

Winter Solstice

Photo by Sebastian Beck on Pexels.com
May the return of the sun shine
Love, abundance, peace, grace, and success upon you
May its light banish the shadows and darkness
May you never know lack and always know contentment
May you carry the light of renewal with you 
And may you carry it within you like a beacon of hope 
For all those whose paths you cross
-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom

Winter Solstice written and read by GWS #wordswishesandwisdom #poetry #poetrytok #poem #poet #NaPoWriMo #writer

♬ original sound – GWS