With the holidays coming up, a poem by a fireside poet seems appropriate, right? The fireside poets were a group of 19th-century American poets associated with New England. They were very popular because of their domestic themes. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of them. Even though this is a very old poem, it really resonates with me. We love spending the holidays with our loved ones, but some holidays are just ours …
The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows;—
The happy days unclouded to their close;
The sudden joys that out of darkness start
As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart
Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!
White as the gleam of a receding sail,
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,
White as the whitest lily on a stream,
These tender memories are;— a Fairy Tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where,
But lovely as a landscape in a dream.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Alix in Wonderland 