Guernsey Press

Guernsey’s Christmas – 1944

MOONLIT and starlit the nights in December,

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Vega conspicuous high overhead,

Little Jacques Gallienne, tinsel-work artist,

Prayed with the whole population, for bread:

Food for the table to last them the winter.

Humbly he offered his Methodist prayers,

Asked that divine intervention from heaven

Might bring relief from this hunger of theirs.

Churchill’s assurances sounded but hollow;

‘People in darkness need never despair;’

Nothing had come of his promised protection:

‘There comes a sparking from heaven knows where.’

Christmas was desolate, Islanders hungered,

Cold and abandoned with morsels contrived.

When, on the morning of twenty and seventh,

Sparkled the rumour: ‘Red Cross has arrived!’

Soon they were shouting it high from the roof-tops,

Never a voice on the Island was dumb:

‘See! It’s the Vega, the Red Cross ship Vega,

Brightest of stars in the heavens, has come.’

Thus Little Jacques, with his tin-foil and brushes,

Painting on the glass he’d acquired on the nod

Pictures, especially that heaven-sent vessel,

Practised his art to the glory of God.

Praise for the science that searches the Heavens!

Praise to our God for the stars He has made!

Praise for the blessings that came with the Vega!

Praise to the Lord, for He comes to our aid!

PETER LANE