Others leapt out into symbolism that I found meaningful, but which I know puzzled some of our friends and family members. My own very favourite one, in particular, was simply a\u00a0beautiful gold circle which expressed my thoughts about God perfectly. I\u2019m afraid to report, however, that on that occasion my mother thought we\u2019d taken leave of our senses. Unfortunately we don\u2019t seem to have saved one of these cards in our rough and ready filing system, but I\u2019m sure you can picture it.<\/p>\n This one extended that idea into an image of humanity and divinity meeting in the incarnation.<\/p>\n These two were less challenging in terms of their theology\u00a0\u00a0 Gradually it became clear that if I wanted a Christmas card to express something significant to me,\u00a0I had to write a poem that actually said what I wanted it to say. So the tradition of writing a poem each year for our Christmas card began.<\/p>\n This early one, Snowflake<\/i>, was set painstakingly using lettraset. The poem was written years ago, but still seems to be popular.<\/p>\n Then there was this very short one, spiraling out into the world: \u00a0 Years passed, and the number of Christmas or winter poems increased. Some were serious and reflective, others were light and humorous. There have been several Christmas trees and snowy offerings, reflections on the nativity, including talking animals gathered around the manger and even, following the great Christmas Day Bible reading, one entitled Logos. <\/i><\/p>\n When Anne Born, who was Managing Editor of Oversteps Books, invited me to submit a poetry collection in 2007, I included a couple of my Christmas poems (Touching Earth<\/i>). Anne later suggested that I should put a collection of these specific poems together in a separate collection. That was put on the back burner when Anne became ill and persuaded me to take over the management of Oversteps from her.<\/p>\n This year I decided to follow Anne\u2019s suggestion, and festo<\/i> was published a few months ago. The past few months have consequently seen a fairly hectic schedule of poetry readings, and it\u2019s been great to include quite a number of poems from the new book as I\u2019ve travelled the length and breadth of the country.<\/p>\n About half of our Christmas cards are now being sent by email. This is something of a green initiative in terms of saving paper and ink, but also ensures that the cards arrive quickly, and it allows us to include links to web pages and blogs. If it really is the poem that people enjoy, rather than grappling with the problem of where to hang their Christmas cards, then presumably this will be welcomed. If anyone who has received an e-version this year would prefer a paper copy next year, please let us know.<\/p>\n Then, of course, I had to sit down and write a new poem for this year\u2019s card.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I enjoy sending and receiving Christmas cards, and can cope with quite a wide variety of tastes in the ones I receive. I particularly enjoy the home-made ones, and some people clearly put a great deal of effort and skill into producing their own cards. I also appreciate receiving news…<\/p>\n![\"John](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/john-donne-120.jpg\")
<\/a>Hugh and I therefore started to design our own cards. Some of these used words, such as short biblical texts or, more usually, a few lines from one of the great poets. In this one we chose some of the beautiful words from John Donne’s sonnet, Annunciation<\/i>. As you can see, the Annunciation theme resonates with me in both the visual and the literary arts.<\/p>\n![\"Circle](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/circle-120.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"holy](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/holy-120.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0![\"God](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/god-with-us-80.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Snowflake](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/snowflake-160.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"In](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/in-the-beginning-120.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Soft](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/soft-as-a-feather-120.jpg\")
<\/a>A couple of years ago we used a poem of mine called\u00a0Soft as a feather falling.<\/em> I wanted a line of white feathers to go down the side of the card, so we set off on a wild goose chase to find a source of feathers. Eventually we discovered a friendly duck farmer who was only too pleased to give us bagfuls of white feathers. As we didn’t want to risk spreading avian ‘flu around the country, we microwaved them before sticking the onto the cards. This worked well, except that it made the kitchen rather smelly for a few hours.<\/p>\n![\"front](\"http:\/\/alwynmarriage.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/front-cover-snapshot-smaller1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/i>Plenty of these other poems are included in festo.
\n<\/i>Apparently some of our friends and family members
\nhave collected our Christmas poems as they\u2019ve appeared,
\nso they won\u2019t necessarily be needing to buy the book \u2013
\nthough actually there are also quite a few poems in it that
\nhaven\u2019t been used as cards.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n