Have a Scary Christmas?

Hey, sometimes it feels more like you have to survive Christmas than anything. Plus, I know you've all read everything there is to read about gratitude, good will, family and the Christmas spirit, so why not have a little fun?

The Jingle Bells

BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

Hear the jingle bells!

Hear them jingle!
How they jingle!

How they jangle!

And see the madman in the red suit!

Who is coming!

He sees you!

With wide wild eyes.

He wants you!

He sees you when you sleep!

He knows what mad dances

The reindeer make!

How they twirl and touch their antlers!

How their blood is stirred

By the madman they call Claus!

How merry they are

As they drink your blood and say,

"Merry Christmas to all,

And to all a good night!"

You are their daughter!

My love!

Nancy Drew

Ok. I LOVED Nancy Drew when I was young. I had a copy of the latest girl detective mystery with me at all times. I loved the original books and the more contemporary ones. Honestly, these books are what began my love affair with books in general. Plus, I also love poems with some moral conflict as this one seems to indicate in the end. Enjoy, Super Sleuths!

Nancy Drew
by Ron Koertge

Merely pretty, she made up for it with vim.
And she got to say things like, "But, gosh,
what if these plans should fall into the wrong
hands?" and it was pretty clear she didn't mean
plans for a party or a trip to the museum, but
something involving espionage and a Nazi or two.

In fact, the handsome exchange student turns
out to be a Fascist sympathizer. When he snatches
Nancy along with some blueprints, she knows he
has something more sinister in mind than kissing
her with his mouth open

Locked in the pantry of an abandoned farm house,
Nancy makes a radio out of a shoelace and a muffin.
Pretty soon the police show up, and everything's
hunky dory.

Nancy accepts their thanks, but she's subdued.
It's not like her to fall for a cad. Even as she plans
a short vacation to sort our her emotions she knows
there will be a suspicious waiter, a woman in a green
off the shoulder dress, and her very jittery husband.

Very well. But no more handsome boys like the last one:
the part in his hair that was sheer propulsion, that way
he had of lifting his eyes to hers over the custard,
those feelings that made her not want to be brave
confident and daring, polite, sensitive and caring.

Happy Anniversary To Us

Four years ago today, I made a very wise decision. One, that I have, perhaps, not always seen the wisdom in, but am very proud of today. I married a very wonderful man. Sometimes, I cannot believe the luck of it all.

On an Anniversary
by Donald Justice

On an Anniversary Thirty years and more go by
In the blinking of an eye,
And you are still the same
As when first you took my name.

Much the same blush now as then
Glimmers through the peach-pale skin.
Time (but as with a glove)
Lightly touches you, my love.

Stand with me a minute still
While night climbs our little hill.
Below, the lights of cars
Move, and overhead the stars.

The estranging years that come,
Come and go, and we are home.
Time joins us as a friend,
And the evening has no end.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2004/10/18

Poetry In Motion

Saints pummel Pats to go 11-0. Be still my beating heart.