This poem is from the poetry  book.'  Choice for Teenagers' by              Dr Audrey Coatesworth. This is a book which addresses many of the issues of adolescence and asks questions to encourage discussion and alter behaviours .   

To listen to other poems from 'Choice for Teenagers' visit the website -

    http://www.secondaryschoolpoems.com/#/sample-poems/4527289594                         

The Christmas Story

Christmas comes round every year

A story for young and old

About three wise men who noticed

A bright star, and, we are told

It guided them along the road

Sparkling with amazing light

Till they found an obscure stable

Where a babe was born that night

No burning torch gave signal

But a wonder to meet the eye

Was that a blesséd happening?

Or a mistake from God on high?

As I think about those children

Herod slew with cowardly fears

The star's alert caused sorrow

Many a mother’s grief and tears

Far better to let the baby

In safe obscurity be born

Than to cause dreadful suffering

With a nation - forever torn

From that day the pattern

Continued - just the same

The innocent are still slaughtered

But now - ‘in God's holy name’

Years passed and Herod thought

'Children died, I saved my throne'

He didn't realise, for all eternity

For their deaths he would atone

But was that star really needed?

Would Christ not 'shine the light?'

As evil noticed, and innocents

Have since cried every night