Christmas Special – Charles Causley

In the midst of End of Year Round-up posts, here is a special Christmas poem I was introduced to by Katy Evans-Bush and that I mentioned here. It has been haunting me for weeks now and every time I dip into it, something new emerges, so it’s too good not to share. Merry Christmas!

Convoy.
Draw the blanket of ocean
Over the frozen face.
He lies, his eyes quarried by glittering fish,
Staring through the green freezing sea-glass
At the Northern Lights.

He is now a child in the land of Christmas:
Watching, amazed, the white tumbling bears
And the diving seal.
The iron wind clangs round the ice-caps,
The five-pointed Dog-star
Burns over the silent sea,

And the three ships
Come sailing in.

Charles Causley

Causley passed away on 4 November 2003 and a lovely eulogy on him, including a mention of this poem, can be found here.