FOR THE TWELFTH NIGHT
Sing softly the cherries,
Red, red, sweet and good;
Sing apples and oranges,
The cinnamon food.
Dance swiftly the cider,
Spin more than you should;
For liquor and laughter
Will lighten your load.
Declaim the roast turkey
And riddle the sauce;
Potatoes are stories
Of fortune and loss.
Pipe merrily carrots,
Drum beets till they bleed;
They root down to darkness
Who started as seed.
Oh, candy the greetings
You give to your guests;
The wassil is fleeting
And life ends in death.
So taffy your handshake
And ginger the kiss;
Bake huggings like muffins,
A brave eucharist.
Be feast for our Christmas
And I’ll be the food;
Beg Christ to assist us,
In everything good.
-Walter Wangerin, Jr. d. 2021
Gladsome Lights 
As a Lutheran seminary student, it was as though Walt Wangerin was everywhere; he was immensely influential in Lutheran circles. As it turns out, he was a poet, too. I didn’t know that.
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What a beautiful, life-affirming, celebratory poem for the New Year! I love this!
Jennifer
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Merry Christmas, Gretchen!
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As I read the little poem I kept thinking it was not unlike an e e cummings poem.
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I don’t know this poem, Gretchen, but I am enchanted by it! Happy Orthodox Christmas and Twelfth Night!
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