Monday night 1/5/09 - "Twelfth Night Gift"

"TWELFTH NIGHT GIFT"

Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany, concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas, and is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking".

My mother used to love to have "Twelfth Night" parties. She loved entertaining and that was a favorite party date. In memory of my mother, here is a "Twelfth Night" gift for you.

THE GIFT
A gentle calm - still, quiet air descends
Falling like a silent coverlet of snow
Swathing in beauty the ordinary raiment of daily fare
Powdering crystalline the empty syllables and commonplace replies

The school-taught, teacher-learned, man-made words are hushed
As phrases featherlight as snowflakes drift about
Preparing a special link of thoughts and words
Meant to say - be joy, be peace, be love

The gift to you is you, that closest and most sure of all
Listen! As if listening for the flutter of a far-off bird
Watch! As though watching for that first bright evening star
Feel! As though floating, drifting inward to your own

Falling through yourself - that self-made door
Cascading through into the inner universal light
To that place of purest feelings felt
Within the deepest core rests the whole

A masterpiece of symphonated sound will greet your inward ear
A portrait pulsing with profoundest hues will touch your inner eye
You are the work of art beyond the hand and ear
The essence of all masters put to real

Joy, peace, love - not letters ranged in rows
But self-essences to know
They are met within - at eye-blink reach
To touch, to see, to feel, to be
Prayer Girl