The real Christmas may be over, but the holiday spirit lingers on. I’ve been in touch with Elizabeth Milner, and she kindly shared with me a beautiful Christmas poem she wrote this year. She writes one or two every Christmas. While it may have arrived a bit late in my email inbox, I believe it’s never too late to share it with you.
Elizabeth is a historian, lecturer, and writer, and in Aurora is best known for her book Aurora 1945-1965: An Ontario Town at a Time of Great Change. She grew up in Aurora during the period covered in the book. My connection with Elizabeth may be a brief story, but it all began with our visit to the Aurora Public Library (Aurora Library Visit, A Library Card & Introduction), where I discovered Elizabeth’s book and later ended up with my own copy.
So here is the poem…
Christmas
~ Poem, Elizabeth Hearn Milner
Down the sweeping stretch of time it comes
through eons of water, ice and fire.
Scraped earth is sifted, covered with rubble and swamp,
then prairie grasses, bold flowers and towering trees
that stand as majestic and mighty as gods.
Tiny creatures, that crawl in the coming fecund earth,
are replaced by mastodons and other mighty beasts.
All live, die, change and tumble down to MAN.
He is vulnerable and question filled:
lost in a forbidden place of cruel beauty
not knowing why, or when, or where.
The wary and wily ones survive the deadly maze
and survey the mystery of distant night skies.
They watch and record the changes of the moon
and understand the power of the warming sun
that brings light and rebirth to the dormant land.
Stories of creation come to minds and lips
attempt to end the searching of the curious.
A returning sun turns from sun to Son of God
and ideas stream down to us who still search.
And so we have this glorious night
to consider and ponder sun and Son.
The story of a special child with a message
given just as the sun returns.
A story of warmth, light, birth, goodness and love
and the generous heart that gives.
This is our Christmas.
More about Elizabeth Hearn Milner: “Historian Elizabeth Hearn Milner was born in Toronto in 1939. She studied at Toronto Teacher’s College in 1958, at Ontario College of Education in 1964, at McMaster University, and at Bishop’s University where she obtained a Master’s in Education in 1979. For many years, she taught in different schools and carried out research into regional history. She published “The History of King’s Hall, Compton 1874-1972”; “A Memoir 1857-1892: Mainly Pertaining to the Work in Education of Bishop J.W. Williams”; “Huntingville: A Story of a Village in the Eastern Townships of Quebec 1815-1980”; and “Bishop’s Medical Faculty Montreal 1871-1905”.” Source: Township Archives.
