Morning Haiku and Waka – December 21, 2014

Yuletide
decorations and lights
ruby-red and green
despite falling snow
the spring sun returns

G.s.k. ’14

Today is the 21st of December as you saw in the title … and that means that the longest night of the year concludes 2014 seasonal cycle … today with Winter Solstice our days become progressively longer, spring is just around the corner 😉 or so our ancestors believed.  So light the yule log and be merry on this wonderful day!

This post is a multi-link!  Haiku Horizons (Ruby) – and Carpe Diem Haiku Kai (Decorations)

Trifecta: Week 108 – Haibun – Season’s Greetings

Haibun

Season’s Greetings

Walking alone in the woods, Jack came upon an elderly gentleman sitting on a stone.

“Are you ok?” Jack asked concerned.  It had just begun to snow.
“Oh yes, everything is just fine today.” The old man replied.
“Father, do you need a hand to get back to the village.”
“No, my home is just around the bend.”

Jack was perplexed.  He knew those woods very well and there were no houses; around the bend or anywhere else.

“Do you want me to accompany you?”
“No, I was just waiting for a friend.”
“But soon it will be dark and the snow is beginning to come down rather thick…”
“Now don’t you worry, my friend will take care of me.”

A great white stag walked majestically down the path going directly towards the two men.

“Father, are you ready for our voyage?” said the stag.
“Aye, been waiting for you!”

The old man touched Jack’s arm and he felt a wonderful warm glow travel throughout his body.

“Have a serene Yule-tide.”

Jack awoke in his bed, warm under his down quilt and smiled.
It was Christmas Eve morn and the snow lay high outside his window.

dark cold winter’s day
first snow of the new season
feasting begins

Word count:  208 ——————————————————————————————————————————–

Roundelay: Yule-Tide

Christmas tree at midnight

Roundelay

Yule-Tide

‘Tis time to look at the world and cheer,
This the happiest time of the long year…
When snow and darkness seem so deep,
And all the world seems cold and dead.
For now the year begins to grow
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

When snow and darkness seem so deep…
And all the world seems cold and dead,
We’ll light the log of sweet Yule-tide,
Roast our chestnuts and sing brightly…
Remembering spring, so close to us
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

We’ll light the log of sweet Yule-tide,
Roast our chestnuts and sing brightly…
With our loved ones with our kin,
We augur the new year to begin…
Remembering spring, so close to us,
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

With our loved ones with our kin,
We augur the new year to begin.
We’ll Feast and make the cold ice king fly!
Let’s sing our songs to the Eastern sky!
To the dawn of the year that’s begun to grow…
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

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Roundelay

Vole (Fount of Poetic Wisdom) says that

“the roundelay is quite different from the rondelet, despite the names sounding so similar. It is also different from the roundel, the rondel, the rondine, the rondeau and the rondeau redoublé. These forms all evolved from a common ancestor, hence the similar names. The modern forms are all fixed and tightly defined, but in times past the word roundelay was used in other ways, sometimes as a general term for any kind of lyric.”

In the roundelay, most of the lines are repeated!  There are 24 lines in the poem, but only 12 lines are different.  Vole describes it as ABR/BCR/CDR/DER, where each letter is a rhyming couplet and “R” is the refrain (which is also a rhyming couplet).

The meter is trochaic tetrameter (for example, “By the shores of Gitche Gumee”).  He says that it is permissible for some lines to be a syllable short.

————————————————————————————————————————————

I have to admit…I didn’t really count my syllables…I did a tum-ti-dum-ti-dum-di-dum sort of beat in my head…I found this form at “Blog it or Lose It”  and it was written for Blog Festivus 2013, which you may want to go look at for lots of great reading…this year it’s dedicated to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol!  Here I’ve broken the poem down into colors, a trick I learnt from Cubby at Reowr, in order to help those who’d like to try the form follow the pattern.  Hopefully there are no typos…but if there are…just tell me an I’ll fix it!

Yule-Tide

‘Tis time to look at the world and cheer,
This the happiest time of the long year…
When snow and darkness seem so deep,
And all the world seems cold and dead.
For now the year begins to grow
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

When snow and darkness seem so deep…
And all the world seems cold and dead,
We’ll light the log of sweet Yule-tide,
Roast our chestnuts and sing brightly…
Remembering spring, so close to us
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

We’ll light the log of sweet Yule-tide,
Roast our chestnuts and sing brightly…
With our loved ones with our kin,
We augur the new year to begin…
Remembering spring, so close to us,
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

With our loved ones with our kin,
We augur the new year to begin.
We’ll Feast and make the cold ice king fly!
Let’s sing our songs to the Eastern sky!
To the dawn of the year that’s begun to grow…
As the sun yet, lies in the sky so low.

If anyone would like to try this interesting form, I’d really enjoy reading it and if you like I’ll put your poem and a link to your blog on this one so as to spread the cheer!

Happy Yule-tide to all my neo-pagan friends and may your days be forever sunnier!

Bastet!

J. Milburn at Writing to b Noticed wrote: Krampus? Seriously?

Are the children being a cuss?
Running, screaming, pure avarice?
Let them know about the Krampus,
And see how fast they turn from vice!
All the kids, they know Nicholas;
That jolly elf is just too nice!

Let them know about the Krampus,
And see how fast they turn from vice!
Crying child throws a fit and fuss?
Tell the tale full of chills and ice.
All the kids, they know Nicholas;
That jolly elf is just too nice!

Crying child throws a fit and fuss?
Tell the tale full of chills and ice.
Scar the psyche with little muss;
make the little dears ponder thrice.
All the kids, they know Nicholas;
That jolly elf is just too nice!

Scar the psyche with little muss;
make the little dears ponder thrice.
If you do this, I’m serious:
I hope you come down with head-lice!
All the kids, they know Nicholas;
That jolly elf is just too nice!