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Life on the Deckle Edge

Happy Holidays & Enjoy the Roundup at Buffy’s!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Yayyyy, Solstice! (Taking a little holiday break over here - see you after we cross into 2020! XO.). Enjoy all the poetic offerings graciously rounded up at Buffy's Blog this week. Thanks, Buffy!

http://buffysilverman.com/poetry-friday-the-almost-solstice-edition/

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Poetry Friday - Winter Poetry Swap Goodness from Linda Baie!

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

Once again, our wonderful Tabatha Yeatts organized a Winter Poem Swap - just the thing to make one slow down for five minutes in the midst of the seasonal chaos and think and breathe and ponder and wonder.  (Oops - am I confessing too much?)  I was delighted to receive a magical box in the mail from Linda Baie, who fills the world with poetry and goodness every season.  It had special fun touches such as a rustic verdigris-y metal bird clip, and cheerful red and white baker's twine. 

 

Real confession:  Linda has NOT received my LATE package in return - yet - because it just got mailed Thursday.  I am lucky she is a woman of patience and understanding.  Saturday's deadline whhooossshed right by me before I looked up to see what day it was.  (I am still quite covered up in Etsy orders, in double digits waiting in the wings.  Thrilled, but I've been burning LOTS of midnight oil!!)

 

I waited for a snatch of time to open Linda's package, so I could savor the surprises.  So much to savor!

 

She sent a lovely note.  

 

She sent a wonderful old book full of The Best Poems of 1930. (!) :0)

 

She sent THE most scrumptiuos toffee, explaining that it is a local favorite, and I find that 100 percent believable. Yum.  And more yum!

 

And, she sent a lively, colorful collage and poem!  A bird with a playful pattern - and a STAR eye :0) - floats and flitters, with real feathers, too.    It is the perfect accompaniment to Linda's poem, which she signed, "For Robyn."

 

 

Best Bird

 

I remember the magic

  when I was a wee bird. 

I tried to be the best bird on the block. 

I flitted and fluttered around the trees,

hoverd and hopped

in and out of bushes

being the bird that I was... not. 

 

Now grown, my secret reveals

I'm still flying in my dreams. 

 

 

©Linda Baie.  All rights reserved. 

 

 

Wonderful, isn't it?  Conjures up all kinds of memories and possibilities.  

 

Do you have a favorite line or phrase?  I'd have to say I just "took off" with that final line! 

 

MANY thanks, Linda, for your talents and your generous heart.  

 

Now, fly yourself right over to Elizabeth Steinglass's blog for this week's Poetry Friday Roundup!  (Thanks, Liz.)

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Poetry Friday - Kris Kringle's Surprise

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

I hope your holiday season is filled with sparkle and light, at least here and there and in surprising places. I've been up to my elf-ears in Etsy orders (not complaining!) and so have been running on coffee fumes for the past week or two. I'm still listing items online, and on the home front, today is our First Friday that is also the "Night on the Town" downtown. Shops stay open with grown-up refreshments and such, and there is music, sometimes puppets, and general family holiday merriment on the streets, with the lighting of the Christmas tree and stirring music by US Marine Corps Band members. I have much to do to get my wee little shop ready!

 

Since I'm currently immersed in my favorite things - art supplies and old books - and since I've no free space in the ol' brain for anything too profound or complicated this week, I peeked around for something old and fun to share today.  In one of my volumes of CROWN JEWELS, I found a poem I hadn't stumbled upon before.  I hope it brings a chuckle!

 

It's from CROWN JEWELS or Gems of Literature, Art and Music Being Choice Selections From the Writings and Musical Productions of the Most Celebrated Authors From the Earliest Times (etc. - it actually goes on and on!), compiled by Henry Davenport Northrop, D. D., and published by W. J. Connaton, Kansas City, in 1888.

 

 

Kris Kringle's Surprise

by Henry Davenport

 

With heavy pack upon his back, 

  And smiles upon his face,

  Kris Kringle waded through the snow,

  And went at rapid pace.

His sack that made him sweat and tug

  Was stuffed with pretty toys,

And up and down throughout the town

  He sought the girls and boys.

 

Not long before, within one door,

  One little Johnny Street,

By lucky chance got into pants,

  And grew about two feet.

On Christmas eve he asked for leave

  To hang upon a peg

The woolen stockings he had worn,

  Each with its lengthy leg.

 

The cunning boy, on Christmas joy

  With all his heart was bent,

And for old Kringle's packages

  With all his might he went.

In big surprise Kris Kringle's eyes

  Stuck out and stared around,

For two such stockings as those were

  He ne'er before had found.

 

He thought he'd never get them full,

  They were so strangely deep;

So standing there upon a chair,

  He took a hasty peep:

Young Johnny Street, the little cheat,

  Had watched his lucky chance,

And to the stockings, at the top,

  Had pinned his pair of pants.

 

 

Now, take your mischeivous selves right on over to fiction, instead of lies, where Tanita is rounding us up today.  Thanks, Tanita!

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