Today is a day we all look forward to, with faithful celebrating Jesus Christ's birth and others like me enjoying a day filled with friends, sweets, cakes, and beautiful decorations.

The traditional Christmas story in the New Testament describes Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, which fulfills messianic prophecies. 

However, this evening, when I received a copy of the Christmas Greeting from the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, posted on his official website and emailed to me by a friend in Kyiv, it dampened my spirits and reinforced my opinions of Zelensky.

In his message to Ukrainian citizens, he writes: “Today, we all share one dream. And we make one wish - for all of us. ‘May he perish’, each of us may think to ourselves. But when we turn to God, of course, we ask for something greater; we ask for peace for Ukraine. We fight for it, we pray for it, we deserve it.”

This “he” is none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I felt bad because these are crucial days. After all, we are all waiting to hear three words as soon as possible – “War is Over.”

I remembered a poem, “A Poison Tree,” by the poet William Blake.

This poem explores two methods of handling anger—initially, expressing anger openly as a way to move forward, and secondly, highlighting the risks of suppressing anger. 

The poem uses an extended metaphor to portray the speaker's anger as a tree that produces poisonous apples. The enemy then eats one of these apples and dies. 

We know that Putin is too strong-willed a person to enter Zelensky’s garden to eat an apple, and also because he already has many such gardens far more than him.

William Blake reportedly told his parents about having visions—at age four, he saw God “put his head to the window”; around age nine, he encountered a tree filled with angels while walking in the countryside. Though his parents tried to dissuade him from “lying,” they noticed he was different from other children and chose not to force him into a traditional school setting. 

In the first two lines of the poem, the speaker describes admitting his or her "wrath" to a friend; as soon as the speaker does so, this “wrath” ends. Honesty and frankness, the speaker makes clear, causes anger to disappear.

"A Poison Tree" ultimately makes a powerful argument in favor of opening up and trusting in the human capacity for empathy and understanding. The alternative, the poem argues, is far more dangerous.

I'm uncertain if my poem choice is perfect, but I believe Ukrainians should read it today.

Read the poem - 

I was angry with my friend:

I told my wrath; my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright.

And my foe beheld it shine.

And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole

When the night had veiled the pole;

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.