tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5641117771707843067.post6811345423441835911..comments2024-02-05T15:01:44.563-05:00Comments on Cleveland Poetics: a place for cleveland's writers and readers: Happy Holidays from Clevelandpoetics - the Blogmichael salingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717310933948991992noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5641117771707843067.post-20481999882602571442008-12-24T14:26:00.000-05:002008-12-24T14:26:00.000-05:00Conceived in scandal, born in a barn, Jesus disrup...Conceived in scandal, born in a barn, Jesus disrupts and disturbs fallow lives.<BR/>He offended his people by breaking their rules,bringing not peace but a sword<BR/>to vanquish the old ways, to unshackle the laws. He was a dissident, and insurgent, a dent in the world.<BR/>Some who'd awaited God's final word were disappointed, insulted, outraged.<BR/>There was no throne, just a stumbling stone, no peace before or after that day.<BR/>Your waiting is ended this Christmas morn, a soul choice is his unending gift.<BR/>He is here. All is changed. Now in silence he waits for you.Diane Vogel Ferrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11982295772104313292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5641117771707843067.post-74042827544938354902008-12-23T09:40:00.000-05:002008-12-23T09:40:00.000-05:00"Christmas at Sea"by Robert Louis StevensonThe she..."Christmas at Sea"<BR/><I>by Robert Louis Stevenson</I><BR/><BR/>The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;<BR/>The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;<BR/>The wind was a nor'-wester, blowing squally off the sea;<BR/>And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.<BR/><BR/>They heard the suff a-roaring before the break of day;<BR/>But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.<BR/>We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,<BR/>And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.<BR/><BR/>All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;<BR/>All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;<BR/>All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,<BR/>For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.<BR/><BR/>We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;<BR/>But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard.<BR/>So's we saw the cliff and houses and the breakers running high,<BR/>And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.<BR/><BR/>The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;<BR/>The good red fires were burning bright in every longshore home;<BR/>The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;<BR/>And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.<BR/><BR/>The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;<BR/>For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)<BR/>This day of our adversity was blessèd Christmas morn,<BR/>And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born.<BR/><BR/>O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,<BR/>My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;<BR/>And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves,<BR/>Go dancing round the china plates that stand upon the shelves.<BR/><BR/>And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,<BR/>Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;<BR/>And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way,<BR/>To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessèd Christmas Day.<BR/><BR/>They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.<BR/>"All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call.<BR/>"By the Lord, she'll never stand it," our first mate, Jackson, cried.<BR/>. . . ."It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied.<BR/><BR/>She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,<BR/>And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood;<BR/>As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night,<BR/>We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.<BR/><BR/>And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,<BR/>As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;<BR/>But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,<BR/>Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com