It felt like spring time on this February morning
In a courtyard birds were singing your praise...

In the morning when you finally go And the nurse runs in with her head hung low, And the cardinal hits the window. In the morning in the winter shade, On the first of March, on the holiday, I thought I saw you breathing.

When I woke up, I found
by my pillow a teddy bear
instead of you.

(about "River.") We needed a sad Christmas song, didn't we?

There’s a morning when presence comes
over your soul. You sing like a rooster
in your earth-colored shape. Your heart
hears and, no longer frantic, begins
to dance.

'T was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring,—not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

At two o'clock in the morning, if you open your window and listen,
You will hear the feet of the Wind that is going to call the sun.
And the trees in the Shadow rustle and the trees in the moonlight glisten,
And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done.

Church bells and now I'm awake
And I guess it must be some kind of holiday
I can't seem to join in the celebration
But I'll go to the service
And I'll go to pray
And I'll sing the praises of my maker's name
Like I was as good as she made me...

Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
'It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!'
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!