Christmas Laughter (in March)

My family is very small ~ Eleven of us~Three are over 80~Three are over 60~Three are over 50~Two of us are sons.~~~Come Labor Day the quilts are taken from the clean white sheets in which they summered~~~We seldom have reason and need no excuse to polish the good silver~wash the tall stemmed glasses and invite one another into our homes.~~~We win at Bid Whist and lose at Canasta ~and eat the lightest miniature Parker House rolls~and the world's best five-Cheese macaroni and cheese.~~~I grill the meat~Mommy boils the beans.~Come first snow the apple cider with nutmeg...cloves...cinnamon...and just a hint of ginger brews every game day and night.~~~We have no problem luring Santa Claus down our chimney~~~~~~He can't resist the laughter.
~~~~Nikki Giovanni

Business in Baltimore

There are some that may think that Gertrude Stein is crazy.  Not me - I think there is a method to her maddness. I like to read her work because you never know what is coming next. For example:
~Not narrow, long.~Julian is two.~How many and well.~And days and sank.~Thanks to having.~
Business in Baltimore thanks to having and days and sank how many and well Julian is two not narrow, long.~Julian is two how many and well thanks to having.~Once upon a time Baltimore was necessary.~How and would it be dressed if they had divided a bank and tan.~It connected at once it connected twice it connected doors and floors.~This is in May.~So they say.~How many places for scales are there in it.~Weigh once a day.~~~~~~~~~~And on and on it goes. Just as you think it is going to make sense - it doesn't.  Once in a while it does but it is more fun when it doesn't.

Sonnet 29

I'm going to celebrate Valentine's Day by posting my favorite Sonnet by William Shakespeare.~~~~~~~~When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes~~~I all alone beweep my outcast state,~~~And trouble deaf heav'n with my bootless cries,~~~And look upon myself, and curse my fate,~~~Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,~~~Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,~~~Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,~~~With what I most enjoy contented least;~~~Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,~~~Haply I think on thee,and then my state,~~~Like to the lark at break of day arising,~~~From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate;~~~For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings~~~That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Martin Luther Kiing, Jr.

We miss you. And I hope that if you were here today that you would be happy about how your dream has been fulfilled.  I think you would.  It's not perfect but nothing is. But we have come so far since you were here with us. We will continue to make progress and make you proud.

The Months

What better time to post a poem about the months than in January.  Sara Coleridge
has written a clever one so here it is: January brings the snow~Makes our feet and fingers glow.~~~~~~February brings the rain, Thaws the frozen lake again.~~~~~~March brings breezes loud and shrill, Stirs the dancing daffodil.~~~~~~April brings the primrose sweet,Scatters daisies at our feet.~~~~~~May brings flocks of pretty lambs, Skipping by their fleecy dams.~~~~~~June brings tulips, lilies, roses, Fills the children's hands with posies.~~~~~~Hot July brings cooling showers, Apricots, and gilly flowers.~~~~~~August brings the sheaves of corn, Then the harvest home is born.~~~~~~Warm September brings the fruit;Sportsmen then begin to shoot.~~~~~~Fresh October brings the pheasant;Then to gather nuts is pleasant.~~~~~~Dull November brings the blast;Then the the leaves are whirling fast.~~~~~~Chill December brings the sleet,Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.~~~~~~I wonder what gilly flowers are?  I guess I could google it.

Happy New Year!!!

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,The flying cloud, the frosty light:The year is dying in the night;Ring out wild bells, and let him die.~~~~~~~~~~Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go;Ring out the false, ring in the true.
----Alfred Lord Tennyson

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!