Comments on: Getting and spending we lay waste our powers

By: malone

malone — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:08:34 +0000

ah, silence. I am in Cyprus… I asked for a nail file and a man in uniform handed me 50. In the mix down each hall of this hotel there are lounge singers warming up for tonight’s big entry into 2008.

By: Simon DeDeo

Simon DeDeo — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:11:05 +0000

Robert Southwell
As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear;
Who, though scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed,
As though his floods should quench his flames, which with his tears were fed.
“Alas,” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts, or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”
With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas Day.

By: SPMackin

SPMackin — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:02:22 +0000

What can I say about Xmas; Winter leaves me cold.
Winter
First time I saw snow
fall I had a cold
but I sat in winter wools
upon a rocky pinnacle
atop a soggy hill
From there I saw a towering cloud
drop upon a far brown mound
white powder
that floated
like feather
light lacing the hills
while I sat with friends
who knew snow so shivered
SPMackin, Winter 1996

By: Mary Meriam

Mary Meriam — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:40:00 +0000

Thanks for posting The Keeper of the Midnight Gate- I love it! The last stanza is great. I think I’ve found a soul brother in Walter de la Mare.
Mistletoe
Walter de la Mare (1913)
Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.
Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen—and kissed me there.