Timothy Birdnow

I wrote this just this Christmas morning. I will probably work on it and the final product may be quite different, but I wanted to post it today:

by Timothy Birdnow
December 25, 2025

I watched as the light was extinguished
the icy breath blew out the flickering flame
the dark one came and took her away
she one who so long had lighted my way
a terrible tragedy for the whole world but a disaster for me
the darkness unfurled, the ship lost at sea

I trudge through the darkness and the cold
snow, trapped in the silence of the blizzard which comes from below
she awaits on the other side of the unpassable river
in the cold of the night I can do nothing but shiver
she waits in the lush green fields where the light shines the more brightly
the place where there's no pain and nothing unsightly
But I can no longer see the light; trapped in the mounting snowdrifts and the painful frostbite

She was far too beautiful, to gentle, too bright for this world of dark shadows
they circled round her like hungry wolves in the meadows, seeking to snuff out her light
but she was always one to put up a fight
and they have finally won, the insatiable winner claiming the world for the darkness and the sinner

I cannot fathom how the emptiness could win over such as she
but her time of testing was over and she was called to be free, to go to her true home, leaving me in the frozen waste alone to shiver amid the ashes of what had once been asking God why
alone in the darkness and the cold I can only wait and hope to see some light in the eastern sky

no yule for this Christmas, no hearth or home, no merry lamps to push away the creeping predatory dark
to roam aimlessly o'er snow clad fields so stark
I find myself trapped on the wrong side of the river chasm with none to pay my ransom
with many miles to walk but no sense of which direction to tread
although still alive I feel empty and dead

a rudderless ship at the mercy of the cold gales of December
with nothing but what I remember to help me keep my grip
my frozen feet soaked, shaking and they slip on the ice
a long weary trip ahead and little to entice

I used to walk so boldly and decisively
Her soul lighting my way
now the darkness sneers derisively
and what isn't black is now dark gray

Christmas, you may remember, isn't just a party we throw every December
It was the candle which was lit in the dark and the cold
and with it did the plan of salvation unfold

This Christmas morning I stumble and I shiver
not knowing what is borning, what the morrow will deliver
There must be something in this weary world left for me
a Christmas or two that as yet I can't see
but it all seems so far away, as if it were a mirage
lost in the black and the gray an oasis in camoflage

But that is what Christmas is all about
salvation and victory, there is nary a doubt
I must travel on though my heart is quite broken
I must fight the good fight till my last word is spoken

Cathy you've gone and with you all my light
you lit up my world, made it merry and bright
but no matter how dark the sun will eventually rise
the blackness is but a mask, a disguise
Christmas is the promise of salvation and peace
in the end day will come and I'll meet my release

I love you now, and then, and now and forever
some day I will join you and we will always be together
but it's cold now and dark, truly inclement weather
but that won't last and I'll see you whenever

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:15 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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