Archive for Holiday/Occasion

  1. HAPPY GOLDEN DAYS OF YORE • by dj barber 12 Comments

    Misty rain floats on cold, damp air
    as we crunch through the melting snow.
    Dad pulls the bill of his old Pioneer Seeds cap down a bit,
    turns his bespectacled face to the heavens above, gives two quick sniffs.

    He predicts snow is coming, but later, tonight perhaps;
    a talent that holds me in wonder—but he has [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Literary

  2. TICK TOCK • by Mike Close 8 Comments

    Our first Christmas together, we were dating.
    Smiling through uncomfortable introductions
    to each others’ family.

    Married with children now, joy and laughter
    on Christmas morn, on to the in-laws for more.
    A never ending day.

    Our teenagers bring boyfriends and girlfriends
    to endure introductions, faces unfamiliar.
    The meals get bigger each year.

    Our children bring their children,
    smiles and hugs all around.
    “Just look [...]

    Holiday/Occasion

  3. ARTHUR’S SEAT • by Jennifer Stakes 10 Comments

    Tilting towards colour
    on the pale edge
    we stand, arms outstretched,
    drunk with ownership
    of the granite city below
    All of it is ours:
    the soft contoured tenements,
    staggering up through the grey haze
    to the Castle, the molar
    crowning the slanting toothline of the Royal Mile.
    And beyond: Scotland, the World,
    the Future. All of it is ours.
    The windows beneath burn, stern
    in the first shards [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Literary

  4. A HALLOWEEN PRAYER • by Mark Tomlinson 15 Comments

     
    Please protect me Jack ‘O’ Lantern
    From the things that walk this night.
    May your candle burn unhindered
    And your jagged smile be bright.
    Let your orange light surround me
    with a wall of magic light.
    Please protect me Jack ‘O’Lantern
    From the things that walk this night.
     
    Please defend me Jack ‘O’Lantern
    From the things that mean me harm.
    From the fangs and claws [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Humour/Satire, Other

  5. AFTER ARLINGTON • by Ash Krafton 8 Comments

    Standing upon that landscape of marble markers
    snaps our American sensibilities into sharp focus
    and redefines our sense of patriotism.
    We arrive as tourists.
    Turning off a turn-about onto Memorial Drive
    and onto a new perspective, we are forever altered
    in a single, solemn moment.
    Dignity and respect.
    Elegant lines of stone suddenly stretch out,
    hill after hill, broad groves of remembrance,
    where Taps creates [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Inspirational, Other, Poems

  6. SUBURBAN ECHO • by Kirsty Gillies 11 Comments

    Anywhere can be beautiful
    with the appropriate filter
    think back
    doesn’t the sun sway and sparkle? 
    On those kerbstones during seven silent weeks
    broken by the occasional bee of a car
    ambling and nodding
    or wasp of a motorcycle
    You swat them away
    continue to play tennis on the road
    if the ball hits the pavement
    it’s out
    Cricket is for the back garden
    improvised stumps give against [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Other

  7. OLD PRAYERS • by Anne Brooke 23 Comments

    The solidity of old prayers
    carves meaning on the tongue
    and in the heart.
    Better than untried words
    is the echoed memory
    of all the whispered pleas
    or praises
    of the past.
    The same sounds
    chanted through the years
    build a wall you can rest on
    for a while,
    without thought, untroubled,
    quietly.
    Anne Brooke’s fiction has been shortlisted for the Harry Bowling Novel Award, the Royal Literary Fund Awards [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Inspirational, Literary, Poems

  8. EASTER HYMN • by S.J. Higbee 12 Comments

    For the emerald gaze
    of a sunsplashed Spring day…
    Thank you.
    For the chance to raise
    two healthy, clever offspring…
    Thank you.
    For the luck to laze
    in the love of a gentle man…
    Thank you.
    For this daffodil-blaze
    of pure happiness –
    Thank you.
    An ex-teacher, among other things, S.J. Higbee spends far too much time at her computer writing — mostly science fiction novels. She also [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Inspirational, Poems

  9. HAPPY NEW YEAR • by Peggy Landsman 6 Comments

    January 1st
    No work, no mail, no money
    Take out the garbage
    Peggy Landsman’s poetry and prose has been published in both online and print literary journals and anthologies, including Gander Press Review, Spindle, The Muse Strikes Back (Story Line Press), Bridges (Indiana University Press), and Iodine Poetry Journal. Her first poetry chapbook, To-wit To-woo, is available from [...]

    Holiday/Occasion, Poems

  10. BLUE CHRISTMAS • by Mark Dalligan 11 Comments

    A
    log fire
    burning, presents
    wrapped, snowflakes falling.
    Dickensian background to the
    opening of our Christmas Schnapps.
    Glasses clinking, laughter flowing, choirs
    singing. I sit quietly, sipping fine kirshwasser.
    Your stinging absence, a brake on the ancient engine of
    festivity.
    Mark Dalligan works in the City and only by subjugating his besuited self is he able to free the Muse. He does this with varying [...]

    Concrete, Holiday/Occasion, Poems

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