Quips and Tips for Spiritual Seekers

Writing Christmas poems as a holiday gift is creative and meaningful. These tips for giving poetry at Christmas include three ways to write poems, from author Sage Cohen.

This poet see poetry not just as an art form, but as a way of life.

“Poetry can’t change our bank statements, but it can change the way we think about wealth and prosperity,” she says. “It’s important that we understand that income is one thing, and prosperity is frequently something else.”

Below, Cohen explains how to give the gift of poetry at Christmas (and other special occasions). She also offers tips on writing Christmas poems To learn more, read her book, Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (which is itself a wonderful holiday gift idea!). 

Christmas Poems as Holiday Gifts – Give Poetry at Christmas

We don’t need to go anywhere special to tune in to poetry, says Cohen. Our lives are already inundated with sensory information that is the raw material of poems. All we need to do is slow down, pay attention and write down what moves us, intrigues us or stirs our curiosity. This simply requires a willingness to welcome the abundance that is already ours, and to follow the golden thread of language wherever it leads us.

What poetry can give us is something far more valuable than money could ever buy – it gives us ourselves. Poem by poem, we write our souls into existence. Weighted in words, the spirit that animates us becomes palpable. By the same token, each poem we read offers a small window into the human condition, in which we may better recognize some glimmer of our own being.

Poems as Christmas gifts. Egg nog, move over! Cohen says she never experienced any holiday cheer that rivals the state of grace that poetry invites into our lives. “In fact, I often give poems as holiday gifts,” she says. “I print them on pretty paper, place them in an attractive frame and presto – the most treasured holiday gifts I’ve ever given only cost me the time I spent creating them.”

If you want to give poetry as a holiday gift, remember that your life offers more than enough source material for poetry — and you may even reduce Christmas stress by writing poems! Here are a few exercises that will help you see what inspired thoughts and language might be awaiting below the surface….

Tips for Writing Poetry as a Christmas Gift

1. Choose an activity you do regularly that is the absolutely most routinized, unremarkable event of your day. Notice the physical feeling of this routine. Answer these questions about this activity:

• Which muscles are involved? What kind of rhythm or tempo does it involve? Are you cold or hot, energized or depleted?
• How do you feel emotionally when you do this?
• What are the smells associated with this activity? (I use lavender soap, so my sink smells like a French garden.)
• What do you see when engaged in this routine? (I look out at the butterfly bush and magnolia tree in my back yard. I enjoy watching meals erased from plates and glasses.)
• Pay close attention to your thinking. What images and ideas bubble up as you are doing this activity?
• How does the time of day or weather or location (indoors vs. outdoors, your home vs. someone else’s home, summer breeze or snowfall) affect your experience?

2. What wildlife, plants and trees do you see out your window at home, at work, or en route? What do they look like, feel like, sound like? What are their names? What are the visual cues and references in your home and/or workspace? 

Make a list of the 20 things you come into contact with most.

Write down something else in the world that each of these 20 things remind you of. For example, The red teapot reminds me of the robin red breast. The worn wood of the mirror over the sink reminds me of the door to Grandpa’s barn. The curlicue pattern on the silver platter makes me think of storm clouds.

3. Think of someone you see regularly in passing but do not know well, like your mail carrier, barista or neighbor. Write a poem that imagines what their life might be like:

• Who do they love?
• What have they lost?
• What do their pajamas look like?
• What are their aspirations?
• What do they eat for breakfast?

This should give you a foundation of source material to start playing with. Circle a few words or phrases that interest you, and let those be the kindling for your poetic fire.

Poetry is one of the healthiest Christmas gifts you can give a friend or family member — and it can improve your own spiritual and emotional health.

Have you ever given a poem for Christmas? Would your loved ones appreciate poetry as a holiday gift? I welcome your comments below…

Sage Cohen is an award-winning poet who writes four monthly columns about the craft and business of writing and serves as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher 4.