Christmas Eve

Opening gifts the children vary cries

Of happiness with jealousy and tears,

The rapid shifting moods of miseries

And joys so different from those youthful years

Now swiftly flown in life's pale evening glow;

The warmth of love, the plenitude of grace

When candles spoke a liturgy and snow

Enveloped all the world in white embrace.

To see the gifts beneath the fragrant tree,

Lit only by the light of a speeding train,

A season full of childhood's memory

That never shall I see on earth again.

Now all are gone to a dwelling place of rest

And I seek still my soul to find, nor grieve

For those who sleep at peace on heaven's breast

As new prayers rise upon this Christmas eve.