Today is the birthday of Joan Didion, b. 1934, who won the National Book Award this year for her book The Year of Magical Thinking. I’ve added it to The List, largely on the recommendation of Ms. Mental Multivitamin. If I like it, I may add some others of Didion’s books to The List for I must admit that I’ve never read anything by this particular author.

Today is also the day to honor and remember the birth of Christina Rossetti. She was a thoroughly Catholic Christian poet, and she wrote several Christmas poems/carols. Most people are familiar with In the Bleak Mid-Winter, especially the last verse. The following poem, also by Rossetti, is not as familiar although I think I have heard it put to music:

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus,
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

Love is our plea, our gift, and our sign–that which we need, that which we receive, that which we give. May it be so.