Category Archives: poetry

Christmas Has Landed in My heart!

Posted on by
2

It’s 3:00 in the morning when I awake
to find it arrived while I slept!
Christmas has landed in my heart!
I slip out of the bedroom
and go downstairs and the cats
greet me in the hall.
I think they feel it, too.
I plug in the Christmas lights
above the mantel and settle
into my chair near the woodstove.
Black cat rubs his head against my hand.
Calico cat jumps up in the chair
next to mine and tucks her paws
underneath her and closes her eyes –
we are enjoying each other’s company.
The Christmas lights sparkle off
the smooth surfaces around me.
I sing “Silent Night” to the cats
and they turn to me and listen.
Magic is here! Incredible good beyond
imagining is here and more on its way!
Peace! Joy! Love! Hope!
It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Christmas Lights

Grateful for the Christmases That Have Been

Posted on by
2


The sons are no longer toddlers
bopping and skipping around the home –
they’re grown now
and making traditions
and lives of their very own.

Mom and Dad have passed on –
they’ve moved on to their next chapter –
and I guess we’re moving on, too,
and finding the new adventures
that await us in our “after.”

Whatever the future holds –
I’m grateful for the Christmases that have been –
for the love and the memories
that will be with me forever –
for the love of my family and friends.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Christmas Wrapping

The Light Will Soon Return

Posted on by
1

separated and alone
isolated in a cold, dark season
yearning for what was
and looking for a reason
to go forward

it will take courage
to move into the next chapter
to step forward and adapt to
whatever comes next
but trust that Love is there, too,
waiting for yours, waiting for you

the light will soon return

– Karen Molenaar Terrell

Lake Padden Forest (Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

T’was Ten Day Afore Christmas

Posted on by
Reply

T’was ten days afore Christmas and all o’er the Earth
human kinds were scrambling to find Christmassy mirth.
We looked under our beds and up to the North Pole,
looked in our attics and in our cookie dough bowls.

We looked to see if we could order the spirit online
or find it at the supermarket or in a Christmassy pine.
We looked in the fridge and under our car seats,
looked for it in old movies and in peppermint treats.

And then we stopped and settled our searching thoughts,
and it occurred to us that Christmas couldn’t be bought,
and that it wasn’t hiding from us here or there –
Christmas was in this moment, in our hearts, and everywhere!

And the Christmas joy spilled out of us, joining the joy of the Cosmos,
reaching out with love to the darkest, farthest outpost.
And hope filled our hearts, and love broke down the walls.
And we heard the Cosmos proclaim: “On earth peace, good will to all!”

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

December Morning

Posted on by
2

frost on the ground and

fire dances in the wood stove

the calico sleeps

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

T’was Two Weeks Afore Christmas

Posted on by
1

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/karen-molenaar-terrell/episodes/Twas-Two-Weeks-Afore-Christmas-e1bdl5l/a-a726m1a

T’was Two Weeks Afore Christmas

T’was two weeks afore Christmas and all through Eff Bee
not a creature was stirring – not a they, she, or he.
We were prostrate and spent from the holiday bustle
not a twitch could be seen from the teeniest muscle.

We lay all unblinking in our respective beds
while visions of gift-wrapping swirled through our heads.
And clad in our jammies and our way cool madcaps
we had the vague hopeful hope our bodies would take naps.

Holiday jangles and jingles pinged through our brains –
Presley, Crosby, and Mathis taking us down memory lanes –
and would we remember every member to be gifted?
We mentally went through our lists, hoping none were omitted.

There were homes to be decorated and cards to be sent;
parties, caroling, and cookie-making, and we hadn’t made a dent.
But with a collective sigh we remembered there and then
that it’s really about good will to all creatures, women, and men.

And so our thoughts finally settled and our bodies relaxed
as we thought of those we love and a world festooned in pax.
With our hearts wrapped in kindness and the world as our ‘hood
We’re all brethren and sistren – and verily, It’s all good!
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book and A Poem Lives on My Windowsill

Christmas Peace
, , ,
, , ,
, , ,

Waiting for the Christmas Spirit

Posted on by
Reply

The kitsch and spangles
and baubles and bangles,
And department store Santa,
just really can’ta
Seem to bring me
the spirit of Christmas.

And I’ve been waiting to feel it –
the real Christmas spirit
Hoping it’d come by now.
The stockings are stuffed,
the tree is all buffed,
The cookies are baked
and frosted and fluffed
But there’s still something missing –
a feeling, a tingling
that’s supposed to come every Christmas.

Except…
Maybe that Christmas feeling,
that energy and tingling
Is something I can have every day –
It doesn’t depend on spangles,
or jingly-bell jangles
Or jolly men dressed all in red.
It comes in the sharing
of laughter and caring
And the comfort in words with love said:
To all – Peace! Joy! Hope!
Every moment of every day.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book

Morning Prayer (December 3, 2022)

Posted on by
1

You are my precious child.
You are loved. Don’t be afraid.
You are strong and confident,
healthy and happy and whole.
Right now you have everything
you need for life. You are fed
and sheltered and clothed
and warm – held safely
in the palm of My hand.
Karen Molenaar Terrell

Mama Robin and babies on our porch. (Karen Molenaar Terrell)

Do You Hear Love Singing?

Posted on by
Reply

Shh. Be still and listen.
Do you hear the voice of Love singing –
assuring you Good is Endless Everything?
Do you feel Love’s song around you,
surrounding you – good and whole and true?

The song of the Cosmos fills all space
in the eternal Now – embracing
all of Creation – the manifestation
of Love everywhere and always.

There is no separation
in Love’s creation.
We dwell in Love’s song, live within
endless life –
never divided by death or strife
or separated by time or space;
or shattered or fractured
or decaying or doomed.
We can’t feel hatred, confusion, fear, or pain,
hopeless, unwanted, unloved or shamed.
All we can feel is what Love feels.
We can’t be dishonest, greedy, or disorderly  –
all we can be is what perfect Life made us to be.
We can’t be misled or misguided by Truth’s foes
– all we can know is what Truth knows.

All that Love creates is perfect, complete, whole
– maintained and sustained by omnipotent Good.
And all the good that could, would, or should
already is and always has been.
Forever and ever and ever. Amen.

Shh. Be still and listen.
Do you hear Love singing?
We belong to Love.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

An alpine butterfly flits among the flowers on Table Mountain. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.

Ode to Black Friday

Posted on by
1

I do not like Black Friday, sir
I do not like the brrr, grrr, whirrr
I do not like to fight over socks,
I do not like to get crammed in a box
store, you will not see me at the Mall
I do not like it, no, not at all.
The crazy, scrambling, hunter’s race
doesn’t fit my ambling, gatherer’s pace
I like to feel, I like to sniff
I like to take my time and if
I take more time than Sally and Sam
it’s the way I shop, and it works for me, ma’am.
So you will not find me camped outside the store
You will not find me standing at dawn at the door
You will not find me wedged in the mall’s lot
or crammed in traffic, with wares newly-bought.
For I do not like Black Friday, friend.
Well, except online shopping maybe – they’ll send.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

And now a shameless plug. To order any of Karen’s books, click here.

Are You Taking Me Home Now? Adventures with Dad