Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I will be on a blogging break for a while in order to spend time with my family. I hope the new year brings many blessings to you all.

Family Tree

Family Tree

Take a look at your Christmas tree.
Is yours, like ours, a family history?
Bits of our lives adorn each limb,
scattered among the lights and trim.

Here's an ornament celebrating 
our first Christmas together.
It was such a cold day, with snowy, wintry weather,
but we were warm and cozy inside,
secure in the knowledge that our love would abide.

It wasn't long until our family grew.
We added baby's first Christmas ball in little boy blue.
In a few short years, we added another.
Another blue ornament for a little brother.

Next came handmade treasures
that were made at church and at school.
Bits of ribbon, paper, and glitter
became happy art marking each new yule.

Our hobbies and sports are there on the tree too,
along with the things we love and the things we do.
There are baubles to honor anniversaries and vacations 
that we fondly remember,
and all of these memories come back to us
when the tree goes up each December.

Fragile bits of blown glass from the old five and dime
remind us of another place and another time.
These were left to us by the previous generation. 
They give us reason for reminiscing and contemplation.

Symbols of our faith, are, of course, represented too.
Angels, shepherds, and stars remind us to give proper due
to the real reason for the season, 
the reason we gather around that family tree:
to celebrate the light and love given to us 
that began with the birth of the blessed Baby.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

My poetry book, Rainbow Chaser, is now available in ebook format for those who prefer reading on a Kindle, Nook, or other electronic device. It can be ordered from the sources below. Click on a bookstore name to be taken to that site. Thank you for ordering, and if any of you have the time and would like to leave a review of my book at the site where you purchased it, I would be extremely grateful. 

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

BOOKLOCKER

ITUNES

KOBO

Ducks in a Row

Ducks in a Row

"Plan ahead. Be prepared. Be organized."

We grow up being told to get our ducks in a row,

but plans change, the unexpected happens,

and life gets messy, the further along we go.

Sometimes ducks are stolen by predators,

or they swim away, still in sight, but out of reach.

Sometimes ducks have minds of their own.

They swim in circles going nowhere, 

no matter how hard you preach.

You finally realize that some ducks can't be controlled.

So relax! 

Let them swim and quack. 

Take delight in the brilliant sheen 

of the blue and green 

of  their feathers,

and know that, one way or another, 

eventually, 

they'll get back on track,

(and so will you).

To Write a Book

To Write a Book

It takes courage to write a book,
to accept the challenge, if you dare.
You open your soul, share your heart,
and reveal your thoughts--exposed and bare.
You hope others will understand
what you are trying to say.
That they will nod their heads, cry, or smile
and see life in a new way.
When that book is finally published,
you dance around in a fit of glee,
because your words are there in print 
for all the world to see.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

I have exciting news to share! As you might guess from the poem and photo above, I have written a book! The title of the book is Rainbow Chaser, and it is a collection of my poems. The poems in this book were inspired by: nature and its changing seasons; the gratitude I feel for home and family life; and other observations I have had about the world around us. 

For those who are interested, Rainbow Chaser is now available to order online from the publisher, Booklocker.com, at this link. If you prefer, it is also available to order at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble, as well as at bookstores and other online sites. 

I am thrilled to have this book published and am grateful to Angela Hoy from Booklocker and Todd Engel, who designed the cover, for making this dream of mine come true. If you decide to buy it for yourself or as a gift for a friend, I hope you come back and tell me what you think of it. I appreciate you, my blog readers, for all of the encouragement and support you have given me over the years. Thank you!

Champion

For fun, I decided to use the same list of writer's prompt words from my last post to create another poem. I wanted to see if I could come up with a totally different idea but still use the same words. I got the words originally from the blog, Under the Porch Light by Delores. These are the words: cards, dangerous, flip, glance, sputter, and cowardly. If you need inspiration for your writing, visit Thursday's post at Under the Porch Light. Thank you, Delores, for providing these fun prompts.

Champion

After a quick glance at the judges,
the  skater stepped onto the ice.
She pushed off and began her routine,
spinning, twirling, 
jumping  once, jumping twice.

She knew it was dangerous,
but she had to try. 
She launched herself into a triple flip jump
leaping and reaching, 
meeting the sky.

She nailed it cleanly without a sputter.
Head up, smile beaming.
No one could call her cowardly now.
She glided back to her seat, 
the blades of her skates, sharp and gleaming.

She held her breath and watched.
Nervously she waited
as the judges made their decision.
The cards revealed all tens!
Roses rained down, cameras flashed.
She skated out in victory,
a sparkling. triumphant vision!

Cheaters Never Win

Delores who writes the blog, Under the Porch Light, gives writing prompts for her readers to use as a jumping off spot for their writing. I decided to play along. One of the prompts she gave last week was to use this list of words: cards, dangerous, flip, glance, sputter, and cowardly. I used them in the poem below. I put them in italics so they'd be easier to see. I thought the resulting poem was over dramatic and comical, which was not my intention, but I had fun trying to make the words work for me. If you need inspiration and want to have some fun with your writing, visit Under the Porch Light on Thursdays and try out one of the writing prompts that Delores provides.

Cheaters Never Win 

Smelling of smoke, leather, and whiskey,
five rugged cowhands sit at a bar room table
and hold close the cards they've been dealt.

Jed, with a furtive glance
and a flip of his wrist,
swigs back another belt.

Never known to be cowardly,
he slips an ace from his sleeve, 
lays his hand down, (Jed treads on dangerous ground).

"YOU'RE A CHEATER, JED JONES!" Frank bellows 
as he bangs his fist on the table.
He begins to sputter and swing his gun around.

Jed leaps to his feet and runs for the door.
Frank shoots without blinking an eye.
Jed falls and lies still on the hard, cold floor.

With a sinister grin, Frank drawls,
"Cheaters never win and sometimes...they die.
So long, Jed Jones. Goodbye."

Election Day

Election Day

So much in the future depends
on the decisions made today.
Choosing leaders, passing issues.
Everyone has a say.

Politicians spend their time
trying to prove they are great.
The rest of us consider and try to decide
how they compare, how they rate.

I'm glad I'm not one of them.
Can you imagine how difficult it must be
to guard so cautiously
all that you do 
and all that people see?

Each word spoken 
must be carefully weighed.
Because you know for certain, 
the world will notice if mistakes are made.

So for all of our sakes
and for the sake of our future too,
let's hope the best men and women win.
The fates of many rely on so few.