The poem is taken from January song. Thirty one poems for the thirty one days of January. The poem was written out of necessity. I needed to have something completed for the day and so I drew upon my childhood experiences and memories. There really was a picture of Christ in our dining room closet. It had been damaged and so it was put away but not thrown away. My mother had had a falling out with the Catholic church and had pulled us all from catholic school. We went to a more modern church for a little while but then we stopped when I was in my early teens. Being a poem I of course took some poetic license but in the main it is a literal telling. The second half of the poem is also autobiographical. Our house faced south and on cold winter January days we could open front door and the storm door which was glass head to toe would let in the sun as it was below the eaves of the house. It was warm and toasty and a great place to lie on the carpet and read or look at old photo albums. I actually played the photo memory game I described. all of those memories are literal as well. Photographs in family albums seared into my brain from frequent viewing.
