Jonathan Kelley
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  • Resumé
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  • Acting Projects
    • Monologs >
      • You Can't Handle the Truth
      • The Matrix
      • Shawshank Redemption
    • Stage >
      • Burlador de Sevilla
      • Too Many Tamales >
        • Too Many Tamales 2022
        • Too Many Tamales 2019
        • TMT 2016
        • TMT 2014 Conga
        • TMT 2014 Tamales Song
        • TMT 2014 Cormack monolog
      • The Bird Cage (Jaula de las Locas)
    • Film >
      • Amor en 266 Millas
      • Beauty in the Broken
      • Look No More
    • TV >
      • Better Things, S4 E5 Carbonara
    • Commercials >
      • Milk Life Tango
    • Internet >
      • Falling in Reverse, I'm not a Vampire
      • I Am Easy to Find, The National
      • Kubed Living
      • Tosh O. Vegan
      • Interview, Alas Media
  • Art Projects
    • Glass projects >
      • Pellegrino drinking glasses
      • Mosaic glass
    • Neon Art Projects >
      • Neolithic Spiral
      • Newgrange Neon Spiral
      • Neon Coconut Palm Tree
    • Coconut Frond Weaving
  • Musical Projects
    • Dí Porqué
    • Ragtime Cowboy Joe
    • Ukulele: Puff the Magic Dragon
    • I'm Just Wild About Harry
    • Rhode Island is Famous for You
    • Sand in My Shoes
    • Christmas Music >
      • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
      • Baby, It's Cold Outside
      • I'll Be Home for Christmas
    • Lil Darlin'
    • We'll Sing in the Sunshine
    • Sand in my Shoes
    • Bamba
    • Memories are Made of This
    • Blues Exercise, 2020
    • Beyond the Sea, J and G
    • Joplin Rags >
      • Dill Pickles Rag
      • Joplin - Maple Leaff Rag
      • Joplin-Bethena
      • Joplin-Magnetic Rag
    • I Get Along Without You Very Well
    • When Joanna Loved Me
    • Easter Parade
    • Begin the Beguine
    • Let Me Call You Sweetheart
    • When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
    • Tzena Tzena Tzena
    • You're a Grand Old Flag medley
    • Easter Parade
    • Four Brothers
    • Early Autumn
    • Cute
    • Jonathan's musical compositions >
      • My Los Angeles
      • Life is Like a Stage Play
      • Pretend
      • Get A Dog
      • Let's Begin
      • Leila
      • Unexpectedly
    • College March Boogie Woogie Medley
    • Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
    • Just In Love
  • Culinary Projects
    • Amaretti al Mascarpone
    • Coconuts >
      • Coconuts demo trailer 2015
      • Coconut Lime Soup
      • Coconut Shell Bowl
      • Coconut Cream Pie
      • Tembleque
    • Tropical Fruits >
      • How to eat a mango
      • How to eat a pomelo
    • Pies
    • Croissants
    • Watermelon Poinsettias
  • Head Shots
  • Xootr Mg Kick Scooter
  • Literary Projects
    • Senior on a Xootr Scooter
    • Timely Tips for the Home Chef
    • Counting Backwards from 100: My Life as an Anesthesiologist
    • Short Stories by Jonathan Kelley
    • Poems >
      • Christ Climbed Down
      • La Niña de Guatemala
    • Obituaries >
      • MKK Obituary
      • J Obituary
      • S Obituary
      • D Obituary
      • D Obituary
  • Gallery
  • Contact
Christmas 2018
​Christ Climbed Down, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti,  
first published in "A Coney Island of the Mind" in 1958
blues background.... by myself
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees and no powder blue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where no intrepid Bible salesmen covered the territory in two-tone Cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where no fat handshaking stranger in a red flannel suit and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem Pennsylvania in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer with German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody’s imagined Christ child
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where no Bing Crosby carollers groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels ice skated wingless thru a winter wonderland into a jingle bell heaven
daily at 8:30 with Midnight Mass matinees
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year
and softly stole away into some anonymous Mary’s womb again
where in the darkest night of everybody’s anonymous soul
He awaits again an unimaginable and impossibly Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest of Second Comings