The festival annual has come and gone
With wishes of well-being and joy
May this annum from the start
Find you secure and of good-heart
Padre
Fan Favourite Challenge #1 – SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT
Your ‘Same Same But Different’ task is to take the five challenge words and NOT use them in your writing. That’s right, you need to dig out your thesaurus and find a synonym for each word instead. Your words for the fan favourite challenge are:
Santa
Will come
So I’ll sit and wait
I don’t care if it’s getting late
I’ll sit right here
And not move away
Until I hear that roof top sleigh
If I get sleepy
And to tiredness succumb
Just cover me with blankets
Until he comes
Padre
Iced like winter snow
Sweet reminder of the one
That shone long ago
Padre
All Holies’ Day is not yet here
A year has passed since the last one
And now the saintly power gives way to fear
As Teens play with evil just for fun
–
Late into the evening they shall walk
Lighted pumpkins before the doors
Laughing at powers of which they baulk
Little understanding their horrors
–
As on them night closes like a pall
Adorned in masks, they think disguise
Aware not of the presence mal
Among them those Teens unwise
–
So in their revelry they shall go
Still unaware of the risks
Surprised they shall be when they come to know
Strong cold fingers seizing their wrists
Padre
A little mood setting for Halloween in the form of a Trolaan (a poem consisting of 4 quatrains. Each quatrain begins with the same letter. The rhyme scheme is abab, and each successive stanza beginning with second letter of the previous stanza.
I’ve never been on a Carnival cruise
With luxury cabins and
Captain’s-tables to schmooze
For when I first – went to sea
It was Marines’ compartments
And haze grey for me
Nor have I ever seen Carnival grand
With bright feathered costumes
And steel-drum bands
It’s travelling fairs and village fetes
That have till now
Been my fate
So what does “carnival’ mean to me?
I’m afraid it’s just a word
In the diction-ary
Padre
Pixabay
A wandered forth – for a breath of air
And happened upon the village square
It had transformed since I’d last been there
It now sported – a travelling fayre
There were breathers of fire, and a juggling pair
Their costumes elaborate – and their act had flair
The excitement was more than I could bear
So I beat a retreat away from there
Padre
“This week I am introducing a new challenge to the Saturday Mix – ‘Rhyme Time‘.
‘Rhyme Time’ focuses on the use of rhyme to build your writing piece. You will be given six rhyming words* and need to use all of them (but not limited to these) in your response, which should be a poetry form of your choice.
*Homophones can be used as alternatives to the challenge words.
Our rhyming words this week are:
square
Pixabay
Sweet
Infant,
Manger born –
Angelic Hosts,
Your nativity
To the shepherds proclaim.
In David’s town, as foretold –
Emmanuel to Earth, You came.
Born King of kings and the Lord of Lords
Yet in the humble stable’s hay you were lain.
Padre
Pixabay
Much has been made of the cold and foggy night which brought Rudolph onto Santa’s team, but he is a late comer as we all know. Yes – ladies and gentleman, boys and girls – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, and Cupid all preceded the red-nosed star of song and film. But when it comes the the true “Harts of Christmas,” Dunder and Blixem, that Thunder and Lightening to you and me, were the original stars. Isn’t it amazing what a good publicist can do for a scrawny red-nosed fawn? Give me Thunder and Lightening any day!
True Christmas harts fly
Swift Lightening and Thunder
Tow Santa’s sleigh high
Padre
Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge December 24, 2019: “Heart of Christmas”
The prompt was for a poem, but I couldn’t resist the pun so went with a haibun.
image: chuchleaders.com
Advent has come,
For many, a manger to seek.
But that precious Babe we all adore
Was born – an appointment to keep.
Gold and incense in the straw were laid,
But with bitter myrrh by their side.
The great joy of His coming
Shepherds did spread
It’s fulfillment – would make Mary weep.
Padre
Today is Boxing Day here in England, and in much of “the British World.” The term is relatively new (19th Century), but the practices linked to it are much older. It revolves around the idea of “Christmas Boxes” which were given to formal servants or others who had provided “service” such as postmen, etc.
Christmas Boxes often contained bonuses, small gifts, and often small parcels old clothes or leftover food from the more “well to do” benefactors’ Christmas celebrations.
This spirit of giving is linked to the day in its more Christian manifestation: St Stephen’s Day. Many people in the English speaking world know of it as “The feast of Stephen,” as mentioned in the carol Good King Wenceslas.
Wenceslas was known for his acts of charity and alms. In the song he is depicted as wandering through the snow to give relief to the down trodden,
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay ‘round about
Deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gath’ring winter fuel.
“Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou know’st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence,
By Saint Agnes’ fountain.”
“Bring me flesh and bring me wine,
Bring me pine logs hither;
Thou and I will see him dine,
When we bear them thither.”
Page and monarch forth they went,
Forth they went together,
Through the rude wind’s wild lament
And the bitter weather.
“Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer.”
“Mark my footsteps, good my page,
Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.”
In his master’s steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.
(lyrics source: https://www.christmasmusicsongs.com)
This giving of oneself ultimately follows the example of Stephen himself, who gave his life in service of God. He is noted as the first Christian martyr, and his example of piety is a model for us. We may never be called upon to “lay down our lives for a friend,” in a literal manner, but we can give of ourselves and our resources, as did Wenceslas, and the “box-givers” of the past.
Padre
Padre's Ramblings 