Nick and the Candlestick

This poem is titled Nick and the candlestick and appears to be a poem about Christmas. The last line of the poem is You are the baby in the barn. Meanwhile the title of the poem is Nick and the candlestick. The reference is to St.Nicholaus or Santa Claus. Santa Claus is the saint who brings toys and gifts to children. The first line says the poet is a miner. The light burns blue. The earthen womb exudes from its dead boredom waxy stalactites that drip and thicken and are like tears. The mine, cave imagery fills the poem. The poet is a miner and the poem is set in a cave. What is the poet mining for? Miners can mine for coal, gold, silver, diamonds or any number of other minerals or metals. This poet may be mining for divinity of the Christ child. It is the kind of cave the roof from which stalactites hang.The cave represents the earthen womb. The Christ child is born into the earthen womb. The entire poem seems to be set in a cave. A stalactite is a mineral formation that hangs from a ceiling of a cave. The miner/poet may be in a cave where there is a blue light, waxy stalactites that drip. The blue light in the cave maybe the sorrows of humankind.The stalactites are like tears. Later in the poem there is a reference to the pain an embryo--a newborn wakes up to. The baby born in the cave opens its eyes to see the stalactites which are the solidified teardrops of the world. The mine or cave is compared to the womb of the earth. The cave exudes the airs or atmosphere of a bat from its deep boredom. There are raggy shawls which are the bat airs. Probably referring to the swaddling clothes that Mary wrapped the Christ child in. The poet asks to be wrapped. Being wrapped in the rag shawls is like being killed. They contain in them black bat airs. The ragged shawls feel painful to the baby from heaven. The rags seem welded into the baby. And therefore makes the baby feel as though the baby is being killed. The rags welded to the baby is humanness. Humanness could be bat airs.Christ is a divine being. Yet His clothes as a human baby are the rags of bat likeness. Welding is a process where metal is joined by heating and melting. The Christ child's bat flavored human rags are welded into Christ. They are an integral part of Him. It is an old cave of calcium icicles. The entire cave is white. The icicles, the stalactites and the amphibians are white. A reference to white Newts which are amphibians that go to water to breed but live in land. Next stanza refers to fish which is not an amphibian and is compared to a pane of ice. Holy Joes may be a reference to the Christ Child's father. The panes of ice, the fish and the knives could be the stalactites. The newts are the holy joes. Why does the poet compare the Christ child's father to newts. Is the poet comparing Christ child's father to holy joes? Why is it holy joes and not holy joe? While St.Joseph himself was the just and loving father a representation of the heavenly father, the people who crucified Christ like Pontius Pilate, Annas , Caiphas, and Herod who could very well have been father figures are like Newts to Jesus. They could very well have been loving father figures. But instead they turned out to be Newts.This could be an exhortation that tells us that compared to our heavenly father human fathers are like Newts. This could be the explanation for the title Nick and candlestick. Santa could be the heavenly father coming to us with gifts. Nick as opposed to Newt, perhaps. Nick is the representative of the heavenly father. This could be also referring to the poet's own father who she blamed for abandoning her by dying. A reference to piranha a fish that is violent. The stalactites that appear to the poet as panes of ice and were earlier compared to the tears of the world could very well be fish. A vice of knives. The knives have bad habits. The piranha or violent fish is a sign of using religion as an alcohol. Violence is a bad habit a representative of the sin of the world that the Christ child came to remove or forgive. Knives is a symbol of violence. Piranha Religion drinking. In the cave with the birth of the Christ child religion is formed and drinks its first communion wine from the toes of baby Jesus. The toes of baby Jesus maybe a cup from which communion wine can be had. It's first communion out of my live toes. Is again a reference to how this baby born in a cave would become communion or at the time of birth became communion. The meaning of the word communion is sharing. Christ child by coming to the earth was sharing His divinity. The very first act of sharing or communion took place in the cave where He was born. The birth of the embryo into the earth was communion. After the candle has the first communion or sharing in the divinity of Christ? the candle recovers his altitude or height. The candle gulps the wine. A candle flickers and stands and becomes as tall as the candle used to be. The candle flame which is yellow asks pleasantly to the embryo or the Christ child how did you get here. A candle is lit to light up the darkness in the cave. The embryo itself is in a crossed position probably referring to future suffering on the cross. Inside the Chirst child is ruby for blood. In the embryo there is ruby probably referring to Christ's blood which is like ruby the gemstone and not ordinary blood. The pain the embryo wakes to does not belong to the embryo instead it belongs to fallen humanity. This is a pregnant sentence. The cave is hung with roses and soft rugs. The roses and rugs are symbolic of victorian life. These are symbolic of the art and life of victorian culture or style or civilisation. The miner calls the Christ child Love and asks the Christ child to tarry in the cave and not grow up and makes the cave a beautiful place for the Christ child to tarry in. The stars should sink to their dark address. The address of a person tells us where a person is from. It contains the name of the street, the house name, number or zipcode. In the story of Christ the stars play a prominent role. The star shows the way to the three wise men. Let the stars plummet to the their dark address probably means the miner now that he/she has found the Christ child does not care about the star that showed them the Christ child. Let them plummet to oblivion for all they care. The mercuric atoms that cripple us ought to be allowed to drip into the terrible well. The mercurial refers to constantly changing. The constantly changing world cripples us. The poet says the constantly changing world should be cast into a well. The Christ child is the one solid the spaces lean on. Unlike the mercurial world the Christ child does not change. The solid spaces lean on the embryo. Everyone may be envious of the embryo. The embryo in the cave is the baby in the barn. It is the Christchild. This poem is a Christmas poem. It is about a miner, a cave, the womb of the earth, the baby that experiences the pain of others, and a candle.