Brookwood School It Starts Here.

Reveling in the Spoken Word
Original Writing for our Holiday Celebration Brookwood Revels 2010

Kindness

The night is dark,
the air bitten by frost.
No stars are sprinkled
Across the sky.
The ground is bare and raw,
not yet graced by a blanket of snow.

Yet even in the gloom of tonight,
he still stands,
his cheeks ruddy and chapped
from days of icy winds,
in a small pool of street light,
garbed in crimson and green,
a Santa hat perched upon his head.

His stiff hands are wrapped around
the wooden handle of a brass bell
that he shakes every so often
as men rush by,
not pausing to drop a quarter in his bucket

Yet, despite the careless pedestrians
and frigid weather conditions,
a smile remains upon his creased face,
because he knows what he is doing
is not about his comfort
or his emotions   
but about something much bigger.

Michaela, Gr. 8

Christmas Images

Christmas. Each tine I hear the word, memories are stirred up within me – memories that taste like warm, spongy gingerbread melting on my tongue.

Memories of glimmering white snow settling  around town – muffling the bustle and complication of everyday life, blanketing the world in a fresh canvas of silence.

A canvas to fill with sparkling wreaths garnished with crimson berries, warm embraces from familiar friends and family, twinkling Christmas trees, rosy cheeks, sleigh bells, and joyous laughter.

Christmas is a time like no other, and yet it remains the same each and every year.

A time when the rest of the world is forgotten, and a new world is reborn.

Emma, Gr. 8

Closer than We Think

One Christmas eve when I was younger, I went to church with my family and our Au Pair, Annette. Annette was staying with us for the entire year, and had come all the way from Germany. When we arrived at the church, glistening snowflakes filled the sky, but everything else was empty: we had missed our annual tradition.

My family was disappointed, but Annette looked especially sad. Although her home was so far away, it seemed she felt that she had missed something very important as well.

As we stood there, a man stepped out of the door. He told us that we might still be able to get to the Christmas service at a nearby church.

We arrived at a small, warm building full of light, and each of us smiled. I knew that though Annette was from a place that seemed foreign before, and though her own traditions were not completely the same as our own, we, as people, were very much alike.

Perhaps those who are far away from us, or seem to be, are much closer than we think. Close enough to join hands and celebrate as one, during the holiday season and for always.

Charlotte, Gr. 8

Reflections

Hanukkah isn’t just a week. Christmas isn’t just a day.

Hanukkah is a menorah in the dark. Christmas is rushing downstairs to see if Santa came.  Hanukkah is a house filled with the smell of latkes. Christmas is the scents of pine and cinnamon.

Both holidays bring friends together to play in the snow and enjoy the act of giving. 

Both holidays penetrate winter like beams of light through darkness.  We feel their magic every year as we celebrate with those we love.

Hanukkah and Christmas bound through winter like bursts of beauty and happiness, bright with music, tastes, smells, and feelings.  Then, they take their place in a bleak, snowy landscape and settle there, hibernating for the rest of the season. 

Matty, Gr. 8