Christmas Cheer

Loris Volkle |

12/22/2007 - 12/23/07

First Prize, Children’s Poetry
Loris Volkle has stamina. In 60 lines of rhyming verse, Volkle narrates the dawn-to-dusk adventures of a child on Christmas Day. Innocence abounds in Volkle’s tale, but so does strength. The mental strength necessary to keep a coherent momentum going in a long poem — without repeating oneself and while still having fun — is significant.

I wake up early in the morning — I cannot resist.

I get up off my bed, my hands balled in fists.

As I walk into the kitchen, I smell cookies in the oven.

I look on the table and see my breakfast: a muffin.



Then I see

Our evergreen tree

Decorated beautifully.

The smell of pine

And cookies combined

Is simply divine

And it was all mine!



Well — not all mine, I realized,

As I saw my brother looking traumatized.

He had just come out, from inside his room,

I shook my head and picked up the broom.



I begin to sweep up fallen needles of the tree,

Then I look down and my face expresses glee.



Present by the dozen! Gifts galore!

On this side of the tree, and on the other — even more!

Red ones, blue ones, green ones.

Opening these will be so much fun!



I run to my room and try to read a book,

But on Christmas morning, I'm off the hook.

Wake up! Wake up! Loudly I call,

And lo and behold, my mother came a-fall.



We open the presents, we open every one.

It was really very fun!



I had my muffin with some eggnog.

The day was snowy, with hardly any fog,

So we went out in the back yard

Out into the snow.

We got onto our sleds, and down the hill we go!

I crash a few times, into the snow cold.

By the time I get back in the house, I'm feeling very old.



I drink hot chocolate and eat fresh-baked cookies.

I'm glad we don't have school today,

I don't have to play hooky.

The evening comes very soon,

Before I realize it, the moon

Has already hit the sky,

So high, so unreachably high.



We prepare for the Christmas dinner

As the guests begin to arrive.

Our kitchen was once empty,

But with food, 'tis now alive.

I set the table with the fancy silverware.

Mom wants the table to look nice,

And so do I — I care!



The smell of salt and turkey,

Pudding and Jell-O.

I smell bliss,

As outside it starts to snow.

Then I put upon the table a shining chandelier.

Now our house is ablaze with Christmas cheer.

As our guests arrive,

My mom puts out the food.

All of our guests call out, "It smells so good!"



Then we say grace,

And we eat at a slow pace,

Speaking of the past year,

As we eat and spread Christmas cheer.



Loris Volkle, 12, lives in Santa Fe. He is a seventh-grader
at the Santa Fe School for the Arts and Sciences.