{"id":5410,"date":"2014-12-22T00:29:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T00:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=5410"},"modified":"2014-12-22T00:29:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T00:29:49","slug":"pondering-jesus-christs-birth-death-and-immaculate-reconception-via-lawrence-ferlinghetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=5410","title":{"rendered":"Pondering Jesus Christ’s birth, death and “immaculate reconception,” via Lawrence Ferlinghetti"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"christmas_jesus1\"Image courtesy St. Nicholas Eiscopal Church, Hamilton,GA\u00a0stnicholashamilton.org<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I informally call myself a Unitarian Universalist, though I attend church only occasionally. I was raised Catholic and what still holds up most for me in the Christian tradition is observing and living with Jesus Christ’s historic legacy. It’s something I’m inclined to ponder this time of year. Other writers help me.<\/p>\n

My October\u00a0road trip to San Francisco, highlighted by a visit to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s legendary City Lights Bookstore, prompted me to go back to my autographed copy of A\u00a0Coney Island of the Mind<\/em>, that poet’s most famous book. I bought it years ago at the great Milwaukee bookstore Woodland Pattern, where Ferlinghetti appeared and read and signed copies of his books.<\/p>\n

\"coney1\"<\/p>\n

I hadn’t looked at the book in a while but today (Sunday, December 21) my Woodland Pattern book mark immediately opened it to Ferlinghetti’s poem titled “Christ Climbed Down.”
\nThe poem was published by New Directions Publishing in 1958, first copyright of 1955, and yet it speaks as eloquently and pointedly today about how we’ve lost track of the meaning of Christ’s birthday. I don’t mean to diss anyone’s religious practice, as long that practice doesn’t diss other practices or beliefs.<\/p>\n

\"LF\"Lawrence Ferlinghetti, courtesy\u00a0elpoetaocasional.blogspot.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

But Ferlinghetti was speaking of how we commercially exploited, desecrated and indulged, to “honor” Christ’s birthday in the 1950s, which continues unabated today and probably in far worse manner.
\nSo I reproduce the poem here for your consideration.<\/p>\n

CHRIST CLIMBED DOWN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christ climbed down
\nfrom His bare Tree
\nthis year
\nand ran away to where
\nthere were no rootless Christmas trees
\nhung with candycanes and breakable stars<\/p>\n

Christ climbed down
\nfrom His bare Tree
\nthis year
\nand ran away to where
\nthere were no gilded Christmas trees
\nand no tinsel Christmas trees
\nand no tinfoil Christmas trees
\nand no pink plastic Christmas trees
\nand no gold Christmas trees
\nand no black Christmas trees
\nand no powderblue Christmas trees
\nhung with electric candles
\nand encircled by tin electric trains
\nand clever cornball relatives<\/p>\n

Christ climbed down
\nfrom His bare Tree
\nthis year
\nand ran away to where
\nno intrepid Bible salesmen
\ncovered the territory
\nin two-tone cadillacs
\nand where no Sears Roebuck cr\u00e8ches
\ncomplete with plastic babe in manger
\narrived by parcel post
\nthe babe by special delivery
\nand where no televised Wise Men
\npraised the Lord Calvert Whiskey<\/p>\n

Christ climbed down
\nfrom His bare Tree
\nthis year
\nand ran away to where
\nno fat handshaking stranger
\nin a red flannel suit
\nand a fake white beard
\nwent around passing himself off
\nas some sort of North Pole saint
\ncrossing the desert to Bethlehem
\nPennsylvania
\nin a Volkswagen sled
\ndrawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
\nwith German names
\nand bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
\nfrom Saks Fifth Avenue
\nfor everybody\u2019s imagined Christ child<\/p>\n

Christ climbed down
\nfrom His bare Tree
\nthis year
\nand ran away to where
\nno Bing Crosby carolers
\ngroaned of a tight Christmas
\nand where no Radio City angels
\niceskated wingless
\nthru a winter wonderland
\ninto a jinglebell heaven
\ndaily at 8:30
\nwith Midnight Mass matinees<\/p>\n

Christ climbed down
\nfrom His bare Tree
\nthis year
\nand softly stole away into
\nsome anonymous Mary\u2019s womb again
\nwhere in the darkest night
\nof everybody\u2019s anonymous soul
\nHe awaits again
\nan unimaginable
\nand impossibly
\nImmaculate Reconception
\nthe very craziest
\nof Second Comings<\/p>\n

___________<\/p>\n

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Christ Climbed Down,” from A Coney Island of the Mind<\/em>,\u00a0New Directions Paperback, 1958 \u00a0pp.69-70, or\u00a0http:\/\/www.blogcitylights.com\/2012\/12\/17\/a-coney-island-of-the-mind\/<\/a><\/p>\n

B\/W New Directions book cover of “Coney Island” courtesy of citylightsblogspots.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"coney-220x300\"<\/p>\n

50th Anniversary edition image Courtesy\u00a0blogcitylight.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image courtesy St. Nicholas Eiscopal Church, Hamilton,GA\u00a0stnicholashamilton.org I informally call myself a Unitarian Universalist, though I attend church only occasionally. I was raised Catholic and what still holds up most for me in the Christian tradition is observing and living … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-1pg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5410"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5431,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions\/5431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}