There's more to holiday poetry than just "The Twelve Days of Christmas," says poet Richard Blanco.

For that reason, in the latest edition of his regular poetry segment on Boston Public Radio, Blanco chose a few of his favorite holiday poems, but "not the 'Christmas sweater' version of poetry — something to make us reflect," he said.

"The holidays are a time to reflect, to think about gratitude as the New Year approaches," he continued.

Blanco, the nation's fifth presidential inaugural poetand author, most recently, of the collaboration "Boundaries," shared works that prompt us to slow down in the middle of the busy holiday season.

One, "Frost at Midnight" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is about a man contemplating a cold winter night.

"It's this conversational poem," Blanco explained. "Here is this person just quietly sitting by the fire thinking about his life, thinking about ... his son's life, and how different he wishes it for him, and just sort of in awe and in rapture of nature."

"It just contains an entire universe," he said. "I feel like I'm sitting with Coleridge in this room, feeling every single line and every single emotion he goes through in what is perhaps a 15-minute quiet contemplation of this frosty night," he said.

Follow along with the poems discussed, in order: