Ten Word Challenge 2

[Brigid Briton]

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=644

So, 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!

[Brigid Briton]

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.

[diannet]

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..."

[Neal Allen (snowtracks)]

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.

[Brigid Briton]

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.

[Brigid Briton]

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!

[Neal Allen (snowtracks)]

Thanks Brigid. This is a really fun idea. Thank you

[Brigid Briton]

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.

[buddharocks]

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

[Brigid Briton]

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.

[dustandwater]

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!

[Brigid Briton]

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.

[Neal Allen (snowtracks)]

Clever, evocative and sad. I fear for the cardinal. I hope the cat is fat, happy and unable to jump like my Spice is.

[diannet]

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

[Brigid Briton]

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?

[eiken]

Love all of these wonderful poems.....have to go away and construct a poem, will be back to post...Merry Christmas all

[eiken]

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.

[Brigid Briton]

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!

[eiken]

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

[Brigid Briton]

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