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November 2014

Why Santa?

A small boy frowns under a heap of blankets in a little red wagon on the subway. His Dad and his big brother dance and croon, attempting to cheer him up. A tiny girl with crooked pigtails moans unhappily until her mother whispers secretly in her ear, and a tiny, chocolate stained smile appears on her rosy face. Everyone is on the TTC. All the nations are gathered together, and they shall be comforted. They’re on their way to see their hero, to see Santa, who will appear at the finale of a fabulous parade to bless them as he… Read More »Why Santa?

Christmas Cattle: A poem by Cori Martin

CHRISTMAS CATTLE by Cori Martin (2008) Could it be true, old Thomas Hardy’s tale: at midnight, Christmas Eve, the oxen kneel to Bethlehem? Our parents slept. We kept a vigil till the magic hour, then crept outside, across the glittering, frozen snow to see this vision promised long ago. And, Lo! Behold! There were the cattle in the moonlit barn, a huddled congregation mangered, softly lowing like singers choired in their stalls. Yet, I feel some cattle shared the doubts then sprouting in my childish thought. For some were kneeling there. And some were not. Cori Martin’s poem captures not… Read More »Christmas Cattle: A poem by Cori Martin

Set it free

Several years ago UtReMi kindly published my piece for flute, oboe and choir – a setting of the well-known Biblical passage “God so loved the World.” I wrote the piece for Father Tay Moss who helped me settle in when I first came to St. Mary Magdalene’s and needed help understanding the rich and complex liturgical tradition there. This piece was for Holy Cross day, September 14, 2007. Since that time, UtReMi publishers have ceased operations. Rather than having the piece lost in the limbo between published and unpublished, I asked their permission to set it free and offer it… Read More »Set it free