Poem Ponderings on the Feast Day of the Epiphany

Today is the last day of the Christmas season, unless you celebrate until Candlemas in early February.  Today on the Feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate the visit of the Magi, the Wise Men who come to visit the Baby Jesus.

Today is a good day to think about wisdom, about gifts, about the shadow side of this story, which is Herod, who stews over this vision that the wise men have given him. We might think about all the ways we turn good news into bad, of the ways that we stew over our thoughts and turn them into poisonous actions. We might make an Epiphany resolution to watch our thoughts carefully and to track our actions even more carefully.
I will have many opportunities to do that today, to watch my thoughts, to keep from spiraling into negativity.  It's a day of many meetings and many personalities.  I suspect that I will already know the information that's dispersed at these meetings, which makes it more of a trial for me.

Maybe I'll take my poetry legal pad with me.  It's Tuesday, after all.  My plan is to write a poem on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Epiphany makes us think of wise men following stars--but what an amazing full moon last night!  I was on the top floor of a Ft. Lauderdale parking garage, and I was delighted by the neon lights of the downtown buildings.  My friend said, "But look at the moon!"

It glowed palely in the shadow of the neon.  But later, I sat at my desk, trying to understand a new-to-me Learning Management System for a different college where I'm teaching online classes, and I could see the moon from my window.  How gorgeous it was, how distracting, as the clouds moved across it.  Much more Halloweenish than Epiphany Eve.

I think of Epiphany, all the ways I would prefer to celebrate. 



I'd rather be making 3 Kings Bread.  This blog post gives you an easy recipe, with photos, for a simple, no-knead 3 Kings Bread. if you're wishing you could do this today.  Many families have charms that are baked into the bread that signify what will come in the new year.  Even if you don't have special charms, you could use things you do have:  a nut, a foil wrapped coin, a dried cranberry, a piece of frozen fruit.

My spouse will be home trying to fix the ceiling fan which began making alarming noises yesterday afternoon.  I came home to find it partly out of the ceiling.  But part of it is attached to the ceiling in ways that aren't obvious.  I'm glad that he stopped to wait for daylight and fresh eyes.

Yes, I would like to make 3 Kings Bread, but if I was at home today, I'd be assisting with home repair.  Home repair and Epiphany?  There should be a poem there.

I'd like to be in an awe-inspiring cathedral, celebrating a high mass on this holy day, but I will be sitting under fluorescent lights on standardized office furniture.  Could a poem come from that statement?

I think of Wilfred Owen of all people.  "Anthem for Doomed Youth" was one of the first poems we explored in college that made me say, "I want to be able to do this!  This set of comparisons that makes me think about both war and church and funerals differently!"

Yes, I have found my poetry project for today, something to noodle on and doodle with during my day of many meetings!