Rich Follett

i asked my love


i asked my love what would please her well 
for a gift on christmas morn
to celebrate that joyful day 
when the dear christ child was born

she softly sighed and then replied
in a voice so sweet and low
“it would well please me if i could see
a red rose in the snow”

all through the bleak midwinter night
i searched for thorn or leaf
but all the world was mantled white
and the rose asleep beneath

i asked my lord where i might find
a gift so wondrous rare
he bade me look into my heart
for the blossom flourished there

into my mortal soul i peered 
eternal light my guide
a rose in my heart’s garden bloomed
god’s love did there abide

in every human heart there lies
the promise of rebirth—
a christmas rose, in hope enshrined:
the seed of peace on earth

I asked my love what would please her well
for a gift on christmas morn …

Copyright 2026 Rich Follett

Bio:

Rich Follett has written poems and songs for more than fifty years. He was born on Long Island and moved after college to Virginia, where he serves as the official Poet Laureate for Strasburg.  His poems have been featured in numerous online and print journals, including BlazeVox, the Montucky Review, the Willows Wept Review (Pushcart nominee), and the late Felino Soriano’s CounterExample Poetics, for which he was a featured artist. Rich has authored Responsorials and Geminations (2009 and 2023, respectively, with Constance Stadler), Silence, Inhabited (2011), and Human &c. (2013) through NeoPoesis Press, and Photo-Ku (2016) through NightWing Publications. He is featured in the ODU Virginia Poets Database at https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/virginiapoets. Information and publications at www.richfollett.com

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review