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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 10, 2012 22:38:25 GMT -6
Last year we had one of our best challenges ever, to write a poem using ten words that I pretty much pulled out of the air. We got some great responses from people who were regulars as well as from some people we'd never seen before (or since). poetry-here-and-now.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=challenge&action=display&thread=644So, as we wind down 2012, let's see if anyone is up to a new, holiday themed, 10-word challenge. The words are: spruce scarlet silver cinnamon cheer sparkling ornaments ribbons window lonely Oh, come on, give it a try!
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 10, 2012 23:10:14 GMT -6
OK, here's my entry:
A lonely spruce, bathed in silver moonlight, dusted with sparkling snow, stands outside the window of a small cottage.
Inside, its twin, resplendent in scarlet garlands, festooned with handmade ornaments, and cinnamon sticks wrapped in green ribbons, basks in the golden glow of Christmas cheer.
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Post by diannet on Dec 11, 2012 0:20:35 GMT -6
Lovely Christmas trees, the wild and tamed standing together...very nice I can just picture it Brigid... Mine is not so much a poem but when I saw Scarlet...couldn't think on anything else but Scarlet O Hara...
“Oh Scarlet, you’re just hateful for eating the last cinnamon bun. You always get everything you want, always It’s just not fair.I’m telling Pa.” “Oh fiddly dee Suellen, what’s a little sugar and spice...you can put thesilver bells on the tree and I do declare if you don’t cheer up...I’ll sit you near all the old Nellies at the Christmas party...who sit around like cracked ornaments, I tell you I could die when I hear those gossiping spruce gooses...Your Mr Kennedy will pay you no heed. So if you want to sit like a lonely spinster, framed in the window, go ahead and frown. Now do hush up and pass me those ribbons, I do believe I will be wearing a sparkling ring for Christmas..."
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Post by Neal Allen (snowtracks) on Dec 11, 2012 6:13:27 GMT -6
These are all great and if I must award a prize it will be to Dianne for originality and great humour. My own rejoinder is pretty well just a combination of the words given but here goes. By a window, in a room, in a cottage, in the woods in the winter at Christmas time’ a lonely spruce tree stood and gazed out at all her fellow firs in the forest and sighed. “I wish I could be out there with them”; “They look so peaceful under the big sky”.
But then the people came and hung the indoor spruce with scarlet and silver ribbons and ornaments, and laughed and made merry and feasted at the table on turkey and ham and lamb spiced with cinnamon and quaffed large quantities of sparkling wine.
And Outside the window a cheerful snowman stood and looked in at the Christmas tree and smiled and thought how lucky she was to be in amongst all that Christmas cheer.
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 11, 2012 6:32:37 GMT -6
Wonderful, Dianne! Thanks for the quick response. You have captured the lovely and spirited, but self-absorbed Scarlett O'Hara to a tee (well, actually minus one tee, but still a great response to this challenge!) I hope your deliciously funny scene will inspire others to rise to the occcasion.
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 11, 2012 6:35:53 GMT -6
Hi Neal, Well you tiptoed in with your colorful and very Christmasy entry while I was writing my response to Dianne's. Yours is charming too. Love the picture!
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Post by Neal Allen (snowtracks) on Dec 11, 2012 6:39:35 GMT -6
Thanks Brigid. This is a really fun idea. Thank you
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 11, 2012 6:46:09 GMT -6
Thanks, Neal. Yes, let's get these sorry halls decorated with some boughs of holly and raise a glass in a toast to Christmas. BTW, there is no limit to the number of times a person can respond to this challenge. My mind is already shuffling words around to have another go at it. I hope this inspires any potential elves out there to share their own interpretations with us.
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Post by buddharocks on Dec 11, 2012 13:08:35 GMT -6
Old Fashioned Christmas
The Christmas holiday is drawing near A time of happiness and great cheer Out the window, you see the bright snow And sparkling silver trees down the row
The little white church opens its door And welcomes in the lonely and poor They come to fill their hearts and souls With choir carols and steaming bowls
And in every house, on every street A Christmas spruce is dressed so neat With scarlet ribbons and lights on strings Topped by an angel with gold wings
While Jack Frost is up to his old tricks Hot cider is mulled with cinnamon sticks Children go outside to try their new sleds Mittens on their hands and hats on their heads
But Christmas is here for just one day And soon the ornaments get put away It seems to be over before the start But the feeling still lingers in your heart
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 11, 2012 14:52:16 GMT -6
Hiya buddharocks, It's great to see you again. This was a sweet and sentimental, old-fashioned Christmas indeed, and our first entry from the rhyming camp. I enjoyed it. I took the liberty of italicizing the challenge words in your piece. Hope you'll be able to visit us again soon.
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Post by dustandwater on Dec 11, 2012 20:54:18 GMT -6
Hey, Brigid.
I'm gonna get on this but I can't read anybody else's until I've done mine else it will limit the words for me.
Be back soon!
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 12, 2012 10:33:37 GMT -6
Great, Karl, can't wait to read your entry.
Here's my second go at it:
Morning ornaments the spider’s web with sparkling silver beads.
A scarlet cardinal harbinger of Christmas cheer hops from branch to branch in a blue spruce tree watched from below by a cinnamon-colored cat.
A lonely old woman sits in a chair by the window unseeing letters from her husband in ribbons at her feet.
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Post by Neal Allen (snowtracks) on Dec 12, 2012 13:04:57 GMT -6
Clever, evocative and sad. I fear for the cardinal. I hope the cat is fat, happy and unable to jump like my Spice is.
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Post by diannet on Dec 12, 2012 18:36:06 GMT -6
Wow Neal, you really got into the Christmas Challenge, colourful font and all...loved the picture, it has a lovely christmas glow. Buddah rocks yours is a lovely christmas rhyme, I can just picture the children on their sleds...boogie boards here in the surf Brigid loved your second, the little cardinal so lovely to picture in my head but I do love how you start with the spider webs, the cardinal unknowingly being watch and then the old woman sitting alone with ripped up letters from her husband...it feels like it weaves a darkness through the beauty of ornaments... despite it all life goes on even at Christmas. Well done! and so glad you got a giggle from Scarlet
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 16, 2012 9:21:57 GMT -6
Thanks to all of you who have risen to the challenge, get well wishes to those of you who are too ill to participate, and best wishes to those of you who are still working on your entries. This challenge seems to have stalled out temporarily so if any of you are looking for a way to take your mind off all the holiday hustle and bustle, why not have a go at it?
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Post by eiken on Dec 18, 2012 5:35:50 GMT -6
Love all of these wonderful poems.....have to go away and construct a poem, will be back to post...Merry Christmas all
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Post by eiken on Dec 18, 2012 7:06:44 GMT -6
Dear all, I really loved doing this challenge. You all have such uplifting ones with the exception of the second one by Brigid.
I decided to take a different slant.
Unfolding Memories
He carried the blue Spruce into the Living Room placed it, as always, by the window. She gathered the decorations packed away annually in the large wicker basket, a present from his mother that first year, a family tradition.
As each ornament was placed on the tree, they recalled Christmases gone by.
A golden circle of trees dangling from a scarlet ribbon, retraced lost friends from Copenhagen. The angel with silver wings, memories of her Grandmother the year she came to stay. The sparkling glass bell souvenir from the Americans, a year full of cheer. Brightly patterned garlands hand-made by the children, the scent of cinnamon and cloves surprisingly strong, flashback to the fatal car crash that icy Christmas Eve, the loneliness of ensuing years with no one coming home,
yet they continue to perform the rituals of family tradition.
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 18, 2012 8:57:02 GMT -6
Ah, eiken, my friend, It's so good to see you here in Challenge-land. Your entry is quite powerful, drawing us in with all the lovely, cherished memories, then plunging us down into tragedy and sadness. Great job!
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Post by eiken on Dec 18, 2012 11:27:16 GMT -6
Brigid, I guess the awful deaths in Newtown are weighing on my mind - the sadness of Christmas for so many families now and forever, how could it ever be the same without those beautiful little children. I just cannot imagine the grieving in your country. We in Ireland and throughout the world grieve with you.
Good to be back and partake in this lovely challenge, thank you for putting it up and giving me inspiration. x
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Post by Brigid Briton on Dec 18, 2012 11:44:59 GMT -6
Hi eiken,
Yes, the Newtown tragedy is something that every human being feels deeply, no matter where you live. I just hope that this horrific and senseless act will lead to some sort of gun control in this country. As someone said, "the right to bear arms should not take precedence over children's right to live".
Brigid
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