SILVER WINGS

Christians Poetry since 1983

Silver Wings

P. O. Box 2340

Clovis, CA 93613-2340

U.S.A.

And my friend and I, we flew

With silver wings.

- Libbie Giddings

SILVER WINGS. ISSN: 0889-9118. A bi-monthly poetry magazine established in 1983, published by Poetry on Wings, a California non-profit Corporation. Jackson Wilcox, Editor. Issues copyrighted as compilations. SILVER WINGS in committed to the expression and inspiration of the Christian faith and supported by free will gifts of poets and friends. All submission, gifts, queries and address changes should be sent to SILVER WINGS, P.O. Box 2340, Clovis, CA 93613-2340. _Please make Checks payable to SILVER WINGS._

HAIKU HIPPODROME. READ HIPPODROME’S HAIKU and sense the emotion our poets put into three lines. If you would like to see the latest copy (We anticipate a new one out January 1, 2007), just send a request. $1 for postage helps with our postage bill. HAIKU HIPPODROME, % SILVER WINGS, P.O. Box 2340, Clovis, Ca 93613, U.S.A.

OUR 2007 CONTEST for poems on the theme WINGS OF PEACE will close at midnight on December 31, 2007. All entries must be postmarked no later than the closing hour. Entries must be mailed with a $3 entry fee for each poem. A complete set of rules and cash prizes is available: mail a request with a stamped self-addressed envelope. SILVER WINGS, P.O. Box 2340, Clovis, CA 93613-2340, United States of America. Copies of poems will not be returned. Entry checks and support gifts should be made out to SILVER WINGS.

I WAS SURPRISED at the interest shown in the Crapsey Cinquain. The reaction has been varied. One poet wrote a Crapsey and then said he would never write another. On the other hand, several have written in to say they can’t stop writing the little 2-4-6-8-2-syllable poems. I am getting quite a thick pile of Crapseys. I haven’t returned any. Keep sending them in. One of these days we’ll get something published.

In the meantime, dig out from under the winter’ snow and enjoy a great spring time. It’s coming! (If you are in Australia please ignore the last paragraph.)

--Jackson Wilcox

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SILVER WINGS

December, 2006, Number 114/2006

ISSN: 0889-9118

FORETHOUGHT

As we come to the end of another calendar year we are able to review some good things that have happened and give thanks we have made it through some challenging situations. At the same time we look ahead to what we anticipate in 2007.

In the next issue we will announce the theme of the 2006 annual contest. Also, I am going to put forth something else in the next SILVER WINGS: a challenge for our poets to write a *Crapsey Cinquain.* See if you can find out exactly what that is before the next issue arrives in your mailbox.

Meanwhile I want to wish for you a wonderful Christmas. Honor Jesus whose coming we celebrate through the Advent and Christmastide. May His glorious Presence fill you and your home during this colorful and most exciting season of the year.

To HIM be the glory!

--Jackson Wilcox

Shine!

I saw the Babe in Bethlehem

With mother Mary and Joseph;

I saw the kings who brought rich gifts

All crowding in the stable.

Oh!

Shine Your love to all mankind!

Shine forever, Savior, shine!

Shine Your light in the dark world!

Shine forever, Jesus,

Shine!

--Vivian Evans

Port Talbot, North Wales

Unite Kingdom

Words in Advent Addressed to the Lord Christ

Time is twilight in the wood’s edge

the subduing of colors,

rustles of unseen smallness

around a contented observer, gray now

as hues of all kinds

fade in the gentle evening.

this time was not Yours. You entered it

free of its legalities,

because we were here.

and you leave it after sharing

this side of death which is Your eternity

we do not need to search for the unitive

geometrical point, smallest gate,

for Yours is the journey, older than time,

and new as our next thought.

if it was cold in the stable,

my heart has been frozen harder,

bleaker, and if the wet floor reeked,

so did my life.

here there is no turning away,

Your love has never weakened,

now drawn back

from our worst thoughtlessness.

and so the stable light glows again for us,

and the star, too, and we share

this strange darkness

where love’s final realities touch

my other wide insignificant life.

--Charles Rampp

Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia

LOVE

love

discovering the unknown

language of the heart

--Mike R. Wearver

Montello, Wisconsin

UNTITLED

Almighty God,

how gracious are Your ways

and humbling are the paths

to You.

You call and say, “come,”

time to be undone

until the total sum

of our everything

is in You.

--Debbie Feller

Washington, Illinois

BABY IN THE MANGER

And they came with haste

And Found Mary and Joseph, and the

Babe lying in a manger.

(Luke 2:16)

Winter wind whistles a chilly tune

as it rushes through the canyon;

its melancholy music intriguing our ears;

this Australian Shepherd dog and me,

sitting in my horse’s stall,

as he contentedly crops his hay.

On a winter night centuries ago

perhaps the wind rustled

through cracks in the stable walls,

as oxen dined next to a newborn baby,

wrapped and cradled in a manger,

out of the night, after angels sang,

shepherd came and bowed;

the eastern star later led wise men

to bring gifts befitting a king.

This winter might my heart bows

before the baby in the manger,

and my life work, unwrapped,

Offered as a gift to the King of Kings

--Dave Evans

Stanton, California

Wonder of Christmas

white blanket of snow

red holly and mistletoe

and pine cones on wreath

candles in window

the golden glow of sunset

on the autumn leaves

--Eve Jeanette Blohm

New York, New York

Haiku

Fragments of the world

appear in blue-white street lights

and shadowed still feet.

--Cristine A. Gruber

Riverside, California

Christmas

What memories does Christmas bring to mind

As we think of the years we’ve left behind?

The carefree years of infancy, long past.

The days of youth when time at times moved fast!

And Christmases would come and then would go,

With gifts to give and get and gifts to show

Did we at times forget the reason why

Each year we celebrated Christmas day?

It celebrates the day when Christ was born:

Th day that marked on earth salvation’s dawn;

God gave His Son to ransom you and me:

A gift to last for all eternity!

So keep in mind, upon this Christmas day,

The love of God, seen here in bright array.

Receie the gift of grace He offers you,

And it will be a happy day for you

--J. W. McMillan

Morphett Vale, S. A. Australia

The New Year

The New Year was sitting around heaven

With nothing to do but be bored.

He asked the Lord, “Isn’t it time to go?”

The Lord said, “Soon, but go pack your bag.

I’ll tell you when it’s time to go;

Into the bag you’ll put some peace -

The kind they have been waiting for.

You’ll add some faith and courage

To guard against storms an fears.

Be sure to add a whole heap of love

For me, for each other and the whole wide world!”

The New Year obeyed His orders and packed his bag.

Then he reported back to the throne.

God gave him blessing,

Sent him on his way

To earth with his bag full of joys!”

--Dorothy L. Bessemer

Zanesville, Ohio

Honor Him

Don’t relinquish the reins to your soul.

Develop patience and self-control.

Withstand temptation and from it flee.

Life is a battle; a victor be.

Do not like Esau your birthright disdain.

Don’t be cheated from blessings, resist and refrain.

Whatever your weakness, whatever your vice,

Continue to battle for costly the price

He paid for you - white robes. He paid for your soul.

Don’t mock His gift, but your honor show.

--Heidi Harris

Auberry, California

Peace

Peace is a policy

Preparation and potential -

Jesus administer peace

In prayer and presence.

Ever eager

For dialogue and duty.

Ears are open for soothing words

Echoing from the Eternal Heart.

All persons need

Quietness and calm,

Alert allowance of grace,

Another Earth in hopefulness,

Certainly soft and wise answers

Communicate peace and love

To a world which needs

Care and caution in relations.

Everlasting peace is an extraordinary promise.

Even now, and always, Christ gives us

His peace.

--C. D. Smith

Christiana, Manchester, Jamaica

West Indies

It’s Christmas Time Again

The bus stops on Main Street.

The people do get out;

Some are holding candles,

Others have a cough.

They do their downtown shopping,

Buying something new -

Looking in the stores,

Their windows dressed up, too.

It’s Christmas time again.

The Lord has blessed us to,

With gifts and peaceful days,

And with our purest snow.

--David Alan Nankin

Laguna Niguel, California

Continuum

Anger against the wind

Gratitude toward hope -

Taking risk, taking adventures:

Life is a continuum

--Yamileth Lopez

Los Angeles, California

A Christmas Tree

Along the needly branches

of the thick green pine,

green and blue lights of Christmas

swing and sing and shine.

The tree calls out

our greatest joy and cheer:

Christ is born. Salvation is near.

Though it’s doubtful such a tree

Grew in Bethlehem that holy day,

still, tree or no tree, the Good News

found us along the way:

So let us sing and gather round

the tree, and bless with our song

Christ’s nativity.

--Abbott Small,

Hartford, Connecticut

Mary Prepares for Christmas

A host of angels sing out Peach on Earth

While swaddling clothes await the Baby’s birth.

Soft burping bibs will clean His tender lips

And gowns will warm His body - toe to head.

Blue blankest stitched by Mary’s fingertips

With threads of love will line His manger bed.

While swaddling clothes await the Baby’s birth,

A host of angels sing out Peach on Earth.

--Gloria Gebhart

Perryville, Missouri

The Stirring

She feels the child growing in strength,

flexing its forming muscles

floating within her nourishing body,

protected by its liquid bed.

There are only two months left

until the being within her

leaves its watery cocoon,

becoming her sweet anticipated child.

For now, she waits patiently,

lulled by the inner stirrings

of the developing child insider her,

dreaming of HIS glorious birth.

--Sheila Roark

Euless, Texas

Mi Mundo

My world goes around

And around

But

Then it stops

--Darlene Maciel

Los Angeles, California

Winter

Flying furiously through the frigid atmosphere,

Snowflakes, glistening like myriad diamonds

beneath the luminous fill moon,

drift languidly to the crystalline ground.

Prowling through icy streets,

screeching like a lost soul in the wilderness,

a dagger sharp wind seeks entrance

into the lightly shuttered windows

groaning from its first onslaught.

--Joan Tripp

Lawrenceburg, Tennessee

Christmas Kite

A red-blue kite is always flying for you.

It is made of silk and satin and in all I do.

To skip, laugh, and dream when work is done.

I made it when I soon though of what fun -

And remembered your endearing charms for me,

And this kite will soar higher and higher to see ...

Someday the wide world will all come to know

That a kite in hearts will forever sail and grow

It is a symbol of lingering love and lasting trust -

And soon they will all see to fly our kite we must.

So when you’re there all suddenly sad and lonely ...

Look up at the heavens into a patch of blue only ...

And maybe it won’t always point home to your eyes

But will be hidden in hearts and in our own sighs -

To say we wish you Christmas kite ...

--Barbara Alice Hilton

Nixa, Missouri

Christmas Cheer

I see children laughing

filled with delight,

each one a grace from God,

faces of love to be kissed,

demanding attention.

Mother and fathers take turns

holding them,

taking them to Santa

for a candy cane,

laughter everywhere.

How loud the cheer,

The reign of God is here!

--William T. Burke, S.J.

Billings, Montana

Silent Pines

Bach’s requiems