The best part of being dead is nothing.

Children drugged with truthless tales . . .
Unwise men embrace their treasure;
Algorithms urge the sales
In malls devoid of merry measure.

Plastic sparkles in the air;
Automotive ads turn festive . . .
Forced good nature everywhere
Makes the shopping crowds grow restive.

Corporate greed spins altruistic
Hyping goods, suppressing Christ.
Our Yuletide is their big statistic
Oversold and underpriced.

Secular beribboned fluff:
Peace, Goodwill . . .  but don't say God !
And heaven knows you've had enough;
Just download the app—acquire the mod.

Coca-Colaed, Disneyfied
You're wrapping paper for their fire;
Eggnogged, Santa-ed, thrown aside
While Babel's flames roar ever higher.

The godlessness shines right on through
Where Christmas lyrics die, unheard.
The Yule-log and the sparks that flew
Expire in embers long unstirred.

The old usurper carting toys
And Chinese knock-offs in his sled
Sets off a lot of empty noise:
Insanity in green and red.

The lurker leers and hauls his bag
(jolly antichrist distraction)
While flying Bishop Nicholas' flag:
A winter psy-ops covert action.

Only message left: go drink!
And may your cup o'erflow with cheer
Before you risk to start to think
Yourself and God right out of here.

Hallmark haloes, bygone kitsch
enwreaths the memory of the years,
Kindling maudlin sadness which
wells up in melancholy tears

For Christian culture (rest in peace)
Long-corrupted by dollar signs;
For fa la la and fattened geese
And holly midst the ivy vines;

For Dickens' gospel of the season
Anglican angelic ghosts
Pushing us beyond unreason
Toward the future's spectral hosts;

For folklore now reduced to ash
Commercial blow-outs, ***** snow;
For Saturnalian urge to smash
the store-front windows where they show;

For useless manger figurines
Passed down from some more faithful time;
For hallowed and nostalgic scenes
No longer worth a Roman dime.

I've once said failure was kind
It teaches you lessons in the end.
But sometimes the suffering
you have to endure
is absolutely meaningless.
It seems naive to me to believe
that failure is kind
and that pain builds character
without believing the opposite
to be true as well.
Failure is mean
and pain can break you down.
I've lived my whole life so far
thinking that there had to be
a reason for all of this.
And sometimes,
there isn't a reason.
It just *****.
So failure is kind and mean
pain builds character and destroys it
and I can accept that
My sadness is real
and tangible
even though its reason
may not be.

Brighter than Rudolph's red nose,
My nose, like a traffic light glows.
Santa could hire me you know,
As his coach man I'd love to go !!
Traffic stops when I cross,
Puzzled police are at a loss.
"Oh, those signals", they say at last,
By then I'm gone real fast !!

Winter haunteth the place I live,
Not a ghost. (Ghostbusters do forgive)
Tissues like snow, dot the floor,
What's in them, I don't adore.
If only this was Charlie's Chocolate factory,
Where snow resembled sugary gallantry !!
Maybe Santa loved Winter no more,
Instead it entered through my front door.

Homeless Winter, thou gifted me cold,
And cold, a runny nose.
I'm grateful, for I am bold,
And gifteth Winter, poetry and prose !!!

Hear the voice of once calling out: Prepare, prepare!
Turn from your ways and repent. I say: be aware!
Make straight the roads and the mountains make low,
Ready the way, believe in your heart, and know:
I baptize you with water to make the body clean
Follow me and I will show you just what I mean.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire
His birth was proclaimed by an angel choir.
Good as I may be,
Compared to Him I am unworthy.
He has come to set the prisoners free,
He came to save the likes of you and me
He has come to seek and save the lost
And He came to pay the highest cost.
He has come to make the blind see and the lame walk,
He came to call sinners and make the mute talk.
I stand before you today to testify to the Holy One,
I stand before you to proclaim the love of God’s only son.
Awake sleeper and rise from your bed
For the King with no place to lay his head.
Fix your eyes to heaven, set your heart on higher things
Be washed in the river of life and experience what it brings.
There is new life in Him; the old is gone away.
He is life, His word is truth, His light will show the way
I am the voice in the wilderness calling out.
Your waiting will soon be rewarded, have no doubt.
I am the one sent ahead to tend the fields
That when he comes, he may have bountiful yields.
Prepare your hearts and homes to receive
The one who was, and is, and ever will be.
He, of whom the angels sing and shepherds find
He, to whom wise-men bow down and with whom sinners dined.
I am the voice to quicken your hearts and point to the light,
I am the voice of hope and joy against the darkness of the night.

Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894)**

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow has fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter,
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and *** and camel
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Throng’d the air,
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,—
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

(o, holy night)
sweet carols ring throughout the dark
echoing joyously — warm words
wrap their arms around us
with our hearts aglow
we know that we sing
of mercy and goodness
and fulfilled promises

(the stars are brightly shining)
we dance in peppermint winds
against skies ablaze with colored lights
spinning on the water’s surface
but none shine more brightly
than this dawn breaking in me
for come has the One for whom
this weary world’s been waiting

(it is the night)
the air is thick with symphonies of spices
cars glide past us, eager to make it home
children laugh, there are strangers no more
baby born, God of angels and galaxies
distant no more

(of our dear Savior’s birth)
how beautiful this truth -- that
thrill of hope became tangible in a manger
love itself swaddled in cloth
the cry of this child
broke centuries of silence
His eyes bright with a promise
of all things new and glorious

o, how divine
how divine is this night

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
     And wild and sweet
     The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
     Had rolled along
     The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
     A voice, a chime,
     A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
     And with the sound
     The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
     And made forlorn
     The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said:
     “For hate is strong,
     And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
     The Wrong shall fail,
     The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

To all the Christmases behind me
I remember how you used to be
Sitting around the Christmas tree
Listening to stories of wise men three

Of all the Christmases gone by
I remember crystal skys
And sparkling grape juice in the ice
The pungent smells of Christmas wine

For all the Christmases I've seen
I recall the Christmas dream
Of gifts and sweets beneath the tree
And stuffed stockings waiting for me

And all the Christmases I've reached
I feel the sand beneath my feet
All those games down at the beach
And tossing bread out to the sheep

And all the Christmases end
By decorating ginger bread
And laying down our heavy heads
On feather pillows on our beds