C H R I S T M A S   C A R D   2 0 0 7



 

One Long Love Song

You can’t ever have too much song.
Without song, life is too short, too long.
Without song, how can we get along?
Without song, how do we know we belong?

When we believe in song, how far can we go wrong?
May music, lyric, love, may song make us strong.
Let us live as if life were one long love song.
May song give us voice and the courage to long

for what is right and just and even ideal.
May song make us whole, show us what’s real.
No woman or man could have too much love or song.
Without the blessing of song, life is left unsung.

One song, one psalm, one hymn, one verse of praise
can make life holy and lift the rest of our days.
May each of us find our sacred song of songs.
Let us live as if life were one long love song.


To hear this poem as recited to music on the CD
Imagine – Indiana in Music and Words
by Norbert Krapf & Monika Herzig,
(Acme Records, 2007), poem © 2007 Norbert Krapf,
“Memories of Petra” © 2005 Monika Herzig,
go to www.acmerecords.com/mp3/pp1Memories of Petra.mp3
For further samples go to www.acmerecords.com.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2007

Norbert, Katherine
and Daniel Krapf


C H R I S T M A S   C A R D   2 0 0 6

Candles

–after a Polaroid manipulation
       by Darryl Jones–

 

When we light a candle
let us begin the ceremony
of celebrating the flicker

of light that helps us
perceive & appreciate
the folds of beauty

we must learn
how to open
as we pass through

this world we inherited
& must pass on
to those who follow.
 

This poem is included in
Invisible Presence: A Walk through
Indiana in Photographs and Poems
(Indiana Univ. Pr., 2006)
poem © Norbert Krapf, image © Darryl Jones.


SEASON'S GREETINGS 2006

Norbert, Katherine,
Elizabeth & Daniel Krapf
 


C H R I S T M A S   C A R D   2 0 0 5

Going to Church
-after a photo by Andreas Riedel-

All dressed up
in their Sunday best,
white shirts, suits, and ties,

one holds his hat
in his hand next
to his prayer book;
the other wears
it on his head.

They both smile.
They are moving ahead
as if entering the curve
on the last lap of a race
at a very good pace.

They are dressed to the nines.
No way could they look any better;
two old men going to church.

The way they smile,
the way they move
with such grace,

says ladies they love
are going to church, too

This poem is included in
Looking for God's Country, © Norbert Krapf,
published by Time Being Books, 2005.

 

SEASON'S GREETINGS 2005

Norbert, Katherine,
Elizabeth & Daniel Krapf

 

C H R I S T M A S   C A R D   2 0 0 4

Apples in Rainwater
-after a photo by Andreas Riedel-

In a puddle
of rainwater
that collected
between a growth
of weeds, beneath
an old apple tree,

these full globes
fell and rolled
together in just
the right way,

to find morning
sunlight that makes
them look like
orbs of gold,
compact bursts
of luminosity,

gifts brought
and left here
by the three
wise men

as they passed
on their way
from the East.

This poem will be included in
Looking for God's Country, © Norbert Krapf,
to appear from Time Being Books on April 1, 2005.

 

SEASON'S GREETINGS 2004

Norbert, Katherine,
Elizabeth & Daniel Krapf

 

C H R I S T M A S   C A R D   2 0 0 3

STRAWBERRY PATCH SONG

Afternoon sun filled the room
in which I stood as a boy

looking out the open window.
My mother was kneeling on stems

of yellow straw, picking red strawberries
in a blue sundress. As she piled her basket

with layers of ripe berries, the sunlight
coming through that western window

intensified, as if I were climbing
to a higher level of illumination

even though I did not know where
my feet were stepping. I heard her

sing a song that seemed to rise out
of the leafy green plants she was picking

 as much as out of her open mouth:
"I was dancing with my darling

to the Tennessee waltz." Whenever
I put a strawberry in my mouth,

break it open with my teeth, and taste
its watery sweetness with my tongue,

I feel the light streaming through
that western window again, see her

kneel between those rows of plants
sagging with berries, and hear her sing

that song as if it came from beyond
her and passed from me to you.

 
 

This poem, © Norbert Krapf 2003,
is part of a manuscript titled
Looking for God's Country.

SEASON'S GREETINGS 2003

Norbert, Katherine,
Elizabeth & Daniel Krapf


C H R I S T M A S   C A R D   2 0 0 2

 

WOODS HYMN
Where the path crossed
on a log the creek
flowed after a rain.
Treetops shifted
and dripped
in the breeze.

I stood deep
in those woods,
eyes wide open
for the shapes
of leaves, ears
tuned to the cries
of birds and cuttings
of fox squirrels.

To look was
to affirm a faith
I felt particular
to the place.

 To see was
to receive
a grace I could
not define.

To hear was
to know a music
that could not
be written down.

To breathe the air
of the woods was
to give thanks for
what was there
and nowhere else

and stood in need
of no thanks for
being what it was.
 

From The Country I Come From,
(Archer Books, 2002), © Norbert Krapf
Information: www.krapfpoetry.com,
Archer Books; Amazon.com

SEASON'S GREETINGS 2002

Norbert, Katherine,
Elizabeth & Daniel Krapf



C H R I S T M A S   C A R D   2 0 0 1


THE LANGUAGE OF PLACE
You have no name for it
but feel it pull on you
when you enter the hills,
like a forgotten language
a part of you spoke
thousands of years ago.

By studying you cannot
recover what has been lost,
but must let it rise
up from the landscape
and allow it to speak
in that part of the ear
that never unlearned
how to listen to what
is deepest as you give
yourself to the pull
of the place.

The way a creekbed
meanders through a hollow,
a breeze scrapes dry corn

leaves against one another,
a mulberry tree stands
at the bottom of a well
of sunlight on a hill
beside a sagging barn
built on a site where
hunters once camped
as they travelled along
the ridges the glacier left

may give off syllables
that gather into words
that build into sentences
that carry a meaning
you intuit but could
not translate for others

unless you feel the ancient
rhythm and ritual of prayer
suddenly rise up from
the ground and pass
through and beyond you.

To appear in The Country I Come From,
forthcoming in summer, 2002 from Archer Books,
copyright Norbert Krapf.
Information: www.krapfpoetry.com and www.archer-books.com.

SEASON'S GREETINGS 2001

Norbert, Katherine,
Elizabeth & Daniel Krapf


http://www.krapfpoetry.com