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Harvard Square Poetry Stroll
Illustration by Grace Coffey (NPS)
Riding upon the Goat, with snow-white hair,
I come, the last of all. This crown of mine
Is of the holly; in my hand I bear
The thyrsus, tipped with fragrant cones of pine.
I celebrate the birth of the Divine,
And the return of the Saturnian reign;--
My songs are carols sung at every shrine.
Proclaiming "Peace on earth, good will to men."DECEMBER from The Poet's Calendar by Henry Longfellow
Winter, you are
Beautifully not bitter
But beaming with ice
You, and I are oneFrom Cataclysm of Snowfall by Justice JI Brooks
2022 Harvard Square Holiday Poetry Stroll
December 10, 2022-January 1, 2023
Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is excited to announce the third annual Harvard Square Holiday Poetry Stroll in partnership with Mass Poetry and the Harvard Square Business Association. Short works by local poets will be on view at outdoor locations around the Square. Many of this year's poems were selected in conjunction with Mass Poetry's The Hard Work of Hope series, which featured "poems from our community that offer moments of reprieve and inspiration in these difficult and confusing times."
We invite you to enjoy the self-guided outdoor Holiday Poetry Stroll with your friends or loved ones. There is no designated start or end point for this experience. This year's poems and locations, and the opportunity to create your own poetry, are listed on this page.
2022 Harvard Square Holiday Poetry Stroll Map
Complete Poem Listing
Cataclysm of Snowfall
By Justice JI BrooksFeatured at Brattle Plaza Giving Tree (In front of 27-31 Brattle St.)
This year's stroll highlights the work of Cambridge youth poet Justice Brooks alongside over a dozen other remarkable local poets.
When you find the time to let it go, breathe it in
When you find the time for mistletoe, hold them close
When you find the time for hot cocoa, remember the mellows
When you find the time to let it go, breathe it in
When you find the time for mistletoe, hold them close
When you find the time for hot cocoa, remember the mellows
When you find the time to snow angel, smile big
They don't know you like I know you
Smell the frost in the glazed night sky
You are more than green and white
True delight
You may be cold, but not bitter
Bearer of presents and love alike
Memories forged in mountains of snowfall
Cozied up by the fireplace, as warm as joy
Happiness
Love
They don't know you like I know you
They deny the color you bring
They cant see the light you shine
Snowflakes drifting underneath lamplights
The soft yet firm
Crunch
Crunch
Crunch of footsteps upon the
Snow
Snow is your mistletoe
You way to show
You love me so
Your carols sung
Our hearts aglow
I freeze and breathe in
The 17 degree weather
Without hesitation
They don't know you like I know you
You may not crunch like leaves
of the autumn desert rainbow
Sing and carol like permafrost waves of summer
Ice cream lover
Shine like roses
Tulips
Daffodils
Dancing peacefully like
A moth drifts to a flame
But you do crunch
And gleam full of light
And dance and carol
Under glazed moonlight
You do everything you need to
They do not know and love you like I do
Scent of cookies in the oven
Taste of snowflakes melting on your tongue
Winter, you are my carol
My light
My shine
And my dance
My reason to love christmas
You are my ugly cold
But you are my cold
As i drift away
Into my dreams
I cocoon my consciousness
In your cold embrace
Until happy new year sings
Your name
Winter, you are
Beautifully not bitter
But beaming with ice
You, and I are one
DECEMBER from The Poet's Calendar
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1882)Featured at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS (105 Brattle Street)
Click here to continue reading The Poet's Calendar.Riding upon the Goat, with snow-white hair,
Summer 2021 Cicadas
By Ellen SteinbaumFeatured at 94 Brattle Street (private residence)
Click here to continue reading Summer 2021 Cicadas.They’re my last cicadas, though who can be sure,
Oh, my brown boy
By Sunayana KachrooFeatured at American Repertory Theater ( 64 Brattle St.)
You tear up crooning the star-spangled banner
Pseudo-Haiku for Immigrant Haters
By TotongiFeatured at Cambridge Center for Adult Education (42 Brattle St.)
You say Go Home! I say Go Home Too!
Lou Dobbs, major-Jon in his CNN perk
immolates his own people’s spirit
in a time of lament and fits.
The Mayflower’s descent in wretchedness
found in the new land a respite
the same Columbus acquired.
Germany’s "guest workers" and the like
few years after the final solution
convey lessons in bashing absolution.
The Mexicans have come back home,
would you think since this land was taken
a day the Rio Grande was in blood and mayhem.
You say "Go Home!" I say "Go Home Too!"
We all come from a nether space of despair;
I say "Let’s All Together Come Home!"
Ranting may well protect your stuffs
other peoples exist in our world
Cosmos turns around and conscience still molds.
Racism degrades the eternal meaning
the cross-germination of recreated beauties
you may want to return to time passed.
Time when the liberation dream of being
even in the absence of genuine love rituals
regained the right to question and to hope.
-Tontongi (March-April 2006).
(First published in my collection of poems In The Beast's Alley, published by Trilingual Press, Cambridge, 2013.)
Necessity
By Roselyn KubekFeatured at Cambridge Center for Adult Education Blacksmith's House (56 Brattle St.)
Click here to continue reading NecessityJanuary fills us so darkly
notes on: acts of service
By Anthony FeboFeatured at Coyneworks Art Gallery Pop Up (34 JFK St.)
and so
i propose to you to ponder this
Only
By Danielle Legros GeorgesFeatured at Gallery 24/7 (Mount Auburn & Holyoke St.)
Nature hides
the most beautiful
the US is on the brink of war and i’ve just taken a chem test
By Ezana DemissieFeatured at the Democracy Center (45 Mount Auburn St.)
sometimes i crave the quiet space
Click here to continue reading the US is on the brink of war and i’ve just taken a chem test
Permabeauty in the Boston Athenæum
By Andie SheridanFeatured at Grolier Poetry Book Shop (6 Plympton St.)
Click here to continue reading Permabeauty in the Boston AthenæumIn ash and thorn
The Idea of Eleanor
By William TilleczekFeatured at Felix Shoe Repair (1304 Massachusetts Avenue)
Hail, corner-rounder and surprise
Haloed
By Marjorie ThomsenFeatured at the Smoke Shop BBQ (8 Holyoke St.)
Galileo would be stunned: Jupiter’s 79
Hope
By Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
Featured at Cambridge Trust (1336 Massachusetts Avenue)
I hung hope out with the laundry
Click here to continue reading Hope
sipèstisyon
By Mckendy Fils-AiméFeatured at Harvard Coop (1400 Massachusetts Ave.)
in an effort to encourage healthy eating
The Sky's Reflection
By Amy ManionFeatured at Otto Pizza (1432 Massachusetts Ave)
When will I let myself outside?
Love is a Battlefield, Literally, Because the Planet is on Fire
By Margot DouaihyFeatured at First Parish in Cambridge (3 Church Street)
& I’m too in love with this world & its creatures,
Click here to continue reading Love is a Battlefield, Literally, Because the Planet is on Fire.
Before the Ashes
By Christina Pierre LouisFeatured at Christ Church Cambridge (0 Garden Street)
Before your body became ashes
Offering
By Jean Dany Joachim
Featured at First Church Cambridge (11 Garden Street)
I am the poem without words;
I will not be read or said aloud.
I must now stand aside
As I leave the page as an offering.
Come, and come all
To write the collective voice.
Write the redemption poem
With your slogans from the last protests
And whispers of endless nights of prayers.
Write down the paths to follow.
Write your hopeful days.
Write all that is said, all that is heard,
Along with the children’s dreams
With their colors and differences.
Write the land as it stands;
Let the page be a mirror…
I am the poem without words;
I will not be read or said aloud.
Here, I take my leave.
-Jean Dany Joachim
November 8, 2020