The Music In It: Adele Kenny's Poetry Blog: Happy Holidays! December 6, 2014

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Happy Holidays! December 6, 2014 – January 3, 2015

As in the past, I’m going to take a brief December hiatus

and will begin posting new prompts again in January.

I send my sincerest thanks to all of you who have visited this blog over the past year, to loyal readers who visit regularly, and to those of you who have taken the time to post comments and poems. Poetry is about sharing, and I'm grateful for the sharing that happens here! I wish you all special blessings of light, love, and peace throughout this joyous season.

And, as this year comes to a close, I wish all of you

a New Year filled with abundant good health and much happiness!

Regular posts will resume on Saturday, January 3, 2015,

so please stay tuned until then.

In the meantime, if you'd like to revisit some previous holiday season prompts, here are two links:

http://adelekenny.blogspot.com/2010/12/poetry-prompt-35-parody-night-before.html

http://adelekenny.blogspot.com/2012/12/prompt-130-winter-holiday-poems.html

And ... a few of my favorite holiday poems that you might enjoy:

"Meditations on the Fall and Winter Holidays" by Charles Reznikoff

"Christmas Trees" by Robert Frost

"Noel: Christmas Eve 1913" by Robert Bridges

"The Czar's Last Christmas Letter: A Barn in the Urals" by Norman Dubie

"A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior" by Ben Jonson
"The Feast of Lights" by Emma Lazarus
"Are We Done Yet?" by Gail Fishman Gerwin

Visit Poets.org Christmas Article & Poems for an excellent article on Christmas poems. Also on this site are Christmas poems that you can access by clicking on the titles in the left sidebar.

Happy holidays to all!

In poetry and blogging,

Adele & Chaucey

21 comments:

Jamie MorrisDecember 6, 2014 at 1:39 PM
Happy holidays to you, too, Adele! I'm sure a lot of us will miss your posts this December, but there are lots of old posts to revisit and enjoy until January 3rd.

Everyone, enjoy this special season!
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Amita JayaramanDecember 7, 2014 at 7:52 AM
Thank you, Adele. I wish you and your family a joyous holiday season.

Amita (Mumbai)
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Sandy R.December 8, 2014 at 1:07 PM
Merry Christmas, Adele! Thanks for all the wonderful prompts throughout the year.
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Máire Ó Cathail (Ireland)December 9, 2014 at 7:48 AM
i hope the blog readers will enjoy this amazing poem by Christina Rossetti. Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year to all of you!

A Christmas Carol by Christina Rossetti

Source: The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, with a Memoir and Notes by William Michael Rossetti (1904), p. 246

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air,
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, –
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

Before 1872

Note: The last stanza is also published separately as "My Gift, From A Christmas Carol" and "A Birthday Gift"

Note from William Michael Rossetti: "This was first published in Scribner's Monthly, January 1872. It was republished, 1875, in the volume of united poems, being then made to open the series of Devotional Poems." (page 476)
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Mike MandelDecember 10, 2014 at 6:40 AM
Thanks for all the seasonal poem samples. The one by Gail Fishman Gerwin is a gem! Happy holidays!
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Gail Fishman GerwinDecember 11, 2014 at 10:58 AM
Dear Mike, Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. I truly appreciate it. This "little girl" now has two children of her own. For his second Chanukah, we and the other set of grandparents gave her son a "Thomas-y" train table. We had to light the Chanukah lights on it. He's 13 now. Again, so sweet of you to comment and happy holidays to all who participate on this amazing blog.
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Carol LittlehurstDecember 13, 2014 at 4:05 PM
Beautiful tree and such puppy sweetness!

Thank you, Adele, for the prompts all through the year.

Merry Christmas, and may 2015 bring you good health and much joy.

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Rich MandelDecember 16, 2014 at 2:25 PM
Happy holidays, everyone!

I just noticed that there's another Mandel reading the blog -- Mike, I live in CA, where are you from?
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Carole B.December 17, 2014 at 12:52 PM
Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas!

And thanks, Adele, for all the great prompts.
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THE MUSIC IN IT

"The Music In It" is a blog for anyone interested in poets and poetry—the craft and the community.

The title comes from Countee Cullen, who wrote: "My poetry, I should think, has become the way of my giving out whatever music is in me."

Look for a new prompt or guest blogger every couple of weeks or so, usually posted on weekends, and check the archives for older prompts and posts. Be sure to click on the poetry-related links in the sidebar.

Thanks for your visits and comments.

Enjoy!

ABOUT WIND OVER STONES

From Renée Ashley

Compressed and brilliant in their philosophical and imagistic scintillations, the prose poems in Adele Kenny’s Wind Over Stones are of one piece in both voice and intensity of gaze. Through each artwork she has chosen as her lens, she seems to be saying, If we look hard enough and long enough, and with just the right slant of light, we can see through these paintings into ourselves. Her vision embodies, without presumption, the knowledge that, as John Muir told us, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” Kenny tells us, “This kind of purity comes to us without intention—in ordinary things that are anything but ordinary….” She paints it for us herself: “A flurry of bats becomes the Milky Way, and we make no pretense of understanding the infinite (deep inside us), our need to become nothing before we unname ourselves and disappear.” Everything is connected, and through the language of fairytale, examination, and prayer—the same language, after all—each of Kenny’s poems is a gem in a garland of gems.

Publisher's Comments

This unique collection of ekphrastic prose poems continues Adele Kenny’s reflections on the spiritual condition of being. Despite loss and change, she looks into the dark without flinching and finds light among the shadows.

Using ekphrasis as a rhetorical device and combined with Kenny’s signature elements of technical proficiency, hauntingly lucid imagery, and compelling immediacy, these poems filter and record experience in startling ways as they journey across aging’s inevitable arc. Hardwired by Kenny’s understanding of the human spirit, these poems offer us insights into the healing power of attention and awareness.

QR codes are included in this book so that readers can access the paintings that inspired the poems while they are reading. This interactive element enables readers to enjoy a multi-dimensional experience through their smart phones with cameras or free QR code scanning applications on their mobile devices.

ABOUT NOT ASKING WHAT IF

"Kenny has written some of the most hauntingly beautiful spiritual haiku I’ve ever read—haiku that take us as close to divinity as human language can get. Her haiku are spare and commanding, rich in imagery, and layered with meaning." (Alex Pinto, Tiferet)

“Traditional haiku, environmental haiku, psychological haiku, spiritual haiku—Adele Kenny has done them all. Her haiku are spare and powerful, always nuanced with rich symbolism. Her images and juxtapositions make readers hold their breath in wonder.” (Malachy McCourt, Author of A Monk Swimming)

Review by Emily Vogel in Ragazine:
http://ragazine.cc/2016/09/more-books-more-reviews/

ABOUT WHAT MATTERS

"These poems are eloquent, candid, straightforward and genuine." (Robert Pinsky, U.S. Poet Laureate, 1997-2000)

"In Adele Kenny's finely wrought meditations on grief and loss, she never forgets that she's a maker of poems. What Matters straddles two of the exigencies of the human condition: diminishment and endurance. It abounds with poems that skillfully earn their sentiments." (Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer Prize in Poetry)

"These are poems that come to (poetic) grips with the issues of grief, fear, and death ... focused in a new and strong way." (Gerald Stern, National Book Award in Poetry)

Click Here to Read the Tiferet Review of What Matters

Click Here to Read Michael T. Young's Interview

Click Here to Read Michael T. Young's Review

Click Here to "Attend" the Virtual Salon for What Matters