Waiting a Long December Night – 1 December (2020 Re-post)

Waiting a long December night
It’s easy to startle and take fright
Imagine goblins and ghosts
Even though the night are like most
Not yet full winter nights
When the moon is hid from sight
Waiting a long December night
I light candles to burn bright
Imagine unconstrained Christmas cheer
Cosying up with all I hold dear
Wishing for a new year
Without an pandemic to fear
Waiting a long December night
When the moon is hid from sight
I light candles to burn bright
To ward off spirits mischievous fright
Seasonal rhymes and rituals write
Waiting a long December night
©RedCat

Re-post comment:

Today is December 1st, and Wednesday. So this years advent calendar starts off with a re-post from last year. My creative writing classes and the fact that I brazenly decided to take 200% worth of classes has taken all my time and energy this fall. What little I had left got lost amid some family emergencies and other normal life stuff. Even so I decided to try to keep this tradition. If you like to join in post your own advent themed poem in the comment section.

Enjoy!

Last night I where kept up until the small hours by my youngest. Giving me some time to prepare today’s Advent calendar post. Missing to much sleep is never good. But sometimes writing in the witching hour gives great results. ;-)

If you’d like to read last years calendar the post can be found here.

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Vlad Bagacian from Pexels
Second image: Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

Wednesday 1 December, 2021 2

Memories of Labor – 25 December

Photo by **Tobias Bjørkli** from **Pexels**

Night before Christmas
Memories of labor rise
Giving birth on stable straw
Beneath clear starry skies
Guarded by Mars and Orion
Attended by the Moon
Hidden by a veil of mist
Grass sparkling with frost strewn
The mother struggle, the baby scream
Dawn, bright sunlight on ice
Tears and joy intertwine
Pain and blood, children’s birth price
Milk flows, the starchild grows
Beneath flurries of snow
Warm in the embrace of Love
A new Mother’s heart aglow
©RedCat

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
OR
Happy solstice season!
OR
Happy whatever suits you this season!

I just want you all to be happy, healthy, safe and loved!

Friday 25 December, 2020 0

Gift Rhymes – 24 December (2019 Re-post)

In Sweden we have this tradition of writing rhymes that hint at what your Christmas presents contains. We celebrate on Christmas Eve.
The day starts with what my children call Santa porridge (Swedish rice pudding). The adults try to prep for the feast while the kids wait for presents. Many sit down at three o’clock to watch a traditional Disney medley on telly. Then go on to have the biggest dinner of the year – Julbord.

When dinner is cleared away, it’s time for the gifts under the three, or maybe delivered by the neighbor dressed as Santa. Many families have a tradition of everyone sitting around opening one gift at a time, round and round, until all gifts are opened. The gift rhymes are for many part of this tradition.

*photochem_PA from State College, PA, USA [CC BY 2.0]*

This gift might rattle
Many sided polyhedrons for battle
Land to farm for food
Markets for the shrewd
Mountains to mine for ore
Magic forests to explore
Trough the rules will be unfurled
How to be the ruler of this world

This is for thee
Found under the tree
A set of three
One handy in size for notable everyday moments
One sultry black for noting those black torments
One ruby red for novellas in your sensual parlance
All year round I wish thee well
Blank lines for my hearts mademoiselle
Empty pages for your muse to indwell

No, I’m sorry to say
I don’t carry cash today
But, wait. Don’t go…
I have this bag of clothes for goodwill today
You can have first pick
What do you say?
Yes, I know this leads to stares
We remind all these commuters here today
The holidays are for sharing good fortunes
At least, that’s what we all say
© REDCAT

Written for the last prompt of the year at dVerse ~ Meet the bar with gift rhymes, where Björn shared this Swedish tradition. As guessing are part of it I haven’t told you what my two first presents contain. Can you guess?

I will however tell you that the last rhyme is a scene from real life.

Thursday 24 December, 2020 0

Yule Angst – A Villanelle Song by Kmt47 feat RedCat, 19 December

Is there reason to be jolly
Will my love kiss me tomorrow
Wake me from this melancholy
Feeling only pain and colly
Fading like an old, old photo
There’s no reason to be jolly
Brain is treacle slow and foggy
No hope left it’s all a dumb show
Shake me from this melancholy
Bring me back to happy folly
Lead me to above the rainbow
Teach me reasons to be jolly
Read me from your book of stories
Take me to the patch of willow
Break me from this melancholy
Let’s lay down beneath the holly
Touch until we’re breathless, aglow
There is reason to be jolly
Woken from this melancholy
©RedCat

Inspired by music made by Kmt47. I have tried lyrics before, but never felt it work. This time the music gave me rhythm and melody. The words slotted into place, one by one, for each read through. And the music changed after the words where added. Haven’t sung in years, so it was a bit nerv wrecking.

Together we poured all the angst this year had into one strange, haunting techno song.

Written for the last dVerse prompt of the year – MTB: endings / beginnings.
There where a seasonal buffet of five delicious (though low-fat) things about about endings:
^{(for full descriptions see the prompt)}

how and where to end that line
endings as quotations like The Golden Shovel form – where one poem quotes another
endings and beginnings – verse forms that loop and repeat (dVerse Vilanelle)
underlining your endings, and
surprise endings.

Since I recently done two Golden Shovel poems. I choose number 3. I love repating, looping forms. I decided to try a new one a Villanelle.

A Villanelle has 19 lines – 5 three line stanzas (tercets) and a final four line stanza (quatrain). It has a definite rhyme and repeating structure. And thanks to the dVerse explaination I finally understood something about denoting poetic structures.

1b2 ab1 ab2 ab1 ab2 ab12 equals A1bA1 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2

Looks like a strange equation :-)

It means the first five stanzas rhyme aba, the last abaa. The lines denoted with a capital letter are repeated verbatim. You’ll notice I break this in my song and change the lines slightly. I did that after singing it for the first time realizing it would be better to suit the lines to the change going on.

Photo by **Aakash Sethi** from **Pexels**

Saturday 19 December, 2020 10

Gothic Christmas Carol – 16 December

Photo by **eberhard grossgasteiger** from **Pexels**

I

The Yule three stood there beaming in candlelight
Next to the altar of family ancestors
To ward off malevolent spirits of Midwinter night
To let no old wounds, sore or fester

This old blue-blooded family need it you’ll see
They suffer the faith of inherited sin
To ward off the ancient scrolls poverty prophecy
Two great-great-great aunts trapped the spirit of a djinn

The bound it within a flawless stone
Thinking nothing how it would affect nearby senses
To forevermore by the family heir to be worn
To grow with whispers of gory death, unthinkable offences

II

The family prospered and notoriety gained
The women wore fine jewels around melancholic, hysterical throats
The wealth, standing always tempered by a crazy stain
The men sowing madness hexed wild oats

The Djinn constant influence made it so
Their minds slowly cracked and shattered
Together with wealth and fame, their insanity grow
The family’s cursed herd, each generation, culled by a third

Today’s there’s only one daughter of the clan
Tearing her hair, tears on her face, vowing to poverty agree
Talking loudly, all alone, about the touch of a man
Bring me a man, to fan my loins fire, and I will set you free

III

The Djinn told her to put the stone in smithy’s furnace heat
To see the castle gates securely barred
Then go, unlace, lay naked beneath the sheets
The stone exploded in flaming shards, setting fire to the yard

The stable-hand woke at the bang with a start
Eyes gleaming red with revenge fire
Never before eldritch lusts felt in his heart
He would be the new tyrant squire

She’d often dreamt, herself intertwined with the stable-boy in the hay
Sometimes, she’d even imagine him giving her spanks and lashes
Now possessed by the Djinn, he took her in every unimaginable way
Fulfilling every dark twisted fantasy, as everything burnt to ashes

©RedCat

Photo by **Markus Spiske** from **Pexels**

Written for Poetics – Exploring Gothic as a Literary Genre (Step into the realm with me) over at dVerse. Go and read the prompt. It contains lovely Gothic poems and an overview of the genre.

It took some thinking, and a night of dreaming, until I found my way back to that inglenook and one of those forbidden poems.

“The elements of Gothic Literature include, setting in a castle, an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, high and even over-wrought emotion. An ancient prophecy which is connected with either the former or present inhabitants of the castle. Omens, portents and visions. Women in distress and last and but not the least, supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events which take place in the duration of the novel.”

Wednesday 16 December, 2020 8

Waiting a Long December Night – 2 December 2020

Photo by **Vlad Bagacian** from **Pexels**

Waiting a long December night
It’s easy to startle and take fright
Imagine goblins and ghosts
Even though the night are like most
Not yet full winter nights
When the moon is hid from sight
Waiting a long December night
I light candles to burn bright
Imagine unconstrained Christmas cheer
Cosying up with all I hold dear
Wishing for a new year
Without an pandemic to fear
Waiting a long December night
When the moon is hid from sight
I light candles to burn bright
To ward off spirits mischievous fright
Seasonal rhymes and rituals write
Waiting a long December night
©RedCat

1 December

Wednesday 2 December, 2020 0

1 December 2020

Every year, I keep to one childhood joy
A treat that dark days buoy
Wondering what’s the next delight
Hidden there, just out of sight
A piece of Christmas wonder
Behind every number
In my Advent calendar
©RedCat

I grew up with that kind of advent calendar with little gifts in it. Hung on a calendar my mother embroidered. (See picture below)
For years I had a calendar from Body shop, but this year I wanted something different.
After some searching I found one containing little books, from different genres. Today it where two short stories I rather liked. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Tuesday 1 December, 2020 2

Gift Rhymes

This gift might rattle
Many sided polyhedrons for battle
Land to farm for food
Markets for the shrewd
Mountains to mine for ore
Magic forests to explore
Trough the rules will be unfurled
How to be the ruler of this world

This is for thee
Found under the tree
A set of three
One handy in size for notable everyday moments
One sultry black for noting those black torments
One ruby red for novellas in your sensual parlance
All year round I wish thee well
Blank lines for my hearts mademoiselle
Empty pages for your muse to indwell

No, I’m sorry to say
I don’t carry cash today
But, wait. Don’t go…
I have this bag of clothes for goodwill today
You can have first pick
What do you say?
Yes, I know this leads to stares
We remind all these commuters here today
The holidays are for sharing good fortunes
At least, that’s what we all say
© REDCAT

I will however tell you that the last rhyme is a scene from real life.

Friday 20 December, 2019 3

Tag: Christmas

Waiting a Long December Night – 1 December (2020 Re-post)

Enjoy!

Memories of Labor – 25 December

Gift Rhymes – 24 December (2019 Re-post)

Yule Angst – A Villanelle Song by Kmt47 feat RedCat, 19 December

Gothic Christmas Carol – 16 December

I

II

III

Waiting a Long December Night – 2 December 2020

1 December 2020

Gift Rhymes

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