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
    
    

« Previous Entries