Thursday, December 31, 2015

A Curious New Year

May your New Year be met with 'six honest serving-men', "What and Why and When And How and Where and Who", and every second of the New Year that you 'open your eyes, may 'One million Hows, two million Wheres, and seven million Whys' guide you to go 'further' in life than you ever anticipated; discovering things about yourself, life, and your fellow human beings that you never knew. Perhaps by 'going further' you will be the ones to discover a cure for diseases or World Peace... ~ndpthepoetress

The Explorer

1898

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922

"THERE'S no sense in going further - it's the edge of cultivation,"
So they said, and I believed it - broke my land and sowed my crop -
Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station
Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop:

Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes
On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated - so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges -
"Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

So I went, worn out of patience; never told my nearest neighbours -
Stole away with pack and ponies - left 'em drinking in the town;
And the faith that moveth mountains didn't seem to help my labours
As I faced the sheer main-ranges, whipping up and leading down.

March by march I puzzled through 'em, turning flanks and dodging shoulders,
Hurried on in hope of water, headed back for lack of grass;
Till I camped above the tree-line - drifted snow and naked boulders -
Felt free air astir to windward - knew I'd stumbled on the Pass.

'Thought to name it for the finder: but that night the Norther found me -
Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies; so I called the camp Despair
(It's the Railway Gap to-day, though). Then my Whisper waked to hound me: -
"Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder! Go you there!"

Then I knew, the while I doubted - knew His Hand was certain o'er me.
Still - it might be self-delusion - scores of better men had died -
I could reach the township living, but ... He knows what terror tore me...
But I didn't... but I didn't. I went down the other side.

Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes,
And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brimming stream ran by;
But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the water drained to shallows,
And I dropped again on desert - blasted earth, and blasting sky....

I remember lighting fires; I remember sitting by 'em;
I remember seeing faces, hearing voices, through the smoke;
I remember they were fancy - for I threw a stone to try 'em.
"Something lost behind the Ranges" was the only word they spoke.

I remember going crazy. I remember that I knew it
When I heard myself hallooing to the funny folk I saw.
'Very full of dreams that desert, but my two legs took me through it...
And I used to watch 'em moving with the toes all black and raw.

But at last the country altered - White Man's country past disputing -
Rolling grass and open timber, with a hint of hills behind -
There I found me food and water, and I lay a week recruiting.
Got my strength and lost my nightmares. Then I entered on my find.

Thence I ran my first rough survey - chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em -
Week by week I pried and sampled - week by week my findings grew.
Saul he went to look for donkeys, and by God he found a kingdom !
But by God, who sent His Whisper, I had struck the worth of two !

Up along the hostile mountains, where the hair-poised snowslide shivers -
Down and through the big fat marshes that the virgin ore-bed stains,
Till I heard the mile-wide mutterings of unimagined rivers,
And beyond the nameless timber saw illimitable plains !

'Plotted sites of future cities, traced the easy grades between 'em;
Watched unharnessed rapids wasting fifty thousand head an hour;
Counted leagues of water-frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em -
Saw the plant to feed a people - up and waiting for the power!

Well, I know who'll take the credit - all the clever chaps that followed -
Came, a dozen men together - never knew my desert-fears;
Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, used the water-holes I hollowed.
They'll go back and do the talking. They'll be called the Pioneers !

They will find my sites of townships - not the cities that I set there.
They will rediscover rivers - not my rivers heard at night.
By my own old marks and bearings they will show me how to get there,
By the lonely cairns I builded they will guide my feet aright.

Have I named one single river? Have I claimed one single acre ?
Have I kept one single nugget - (barring samples)? No, not I !
Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Maker.
But you wouldn't understand it. You go up and occupy.

Ores you'll find there; wood and cattle; water-transit sure and steady
(That should keep the railway rates down), coal and iron at your doors.
God took care to hide that country till He judged His people ready,
Then He chose me for His Whisper, and I've found it, and it's yours !

Yes, your "Never-never country" - yes, your "edge of cultivation"
And "no sense in going further" - till I crossed the range to see.
God forgive me! No, I didn't. It's God's present to our nation.
Anybody might have found it, but - His Whisper came to Me!

Source: THE KIPLING SOCIETY

Friday, December 25, 2015

I Believe, Do U!?

I believe above is reserved for the Sun, Clouds, and doves

Moon and Stars, planets like Mars
And if I could stretch beyond the blue, perhaps touch Gods’ hand too.

I believe below whence water flows with youthful woes

Of innocence gone as age has marched on

There transcends our Once Upon a Time Childhood Friends

Maybe where Sindbad the Sailor crossed or perhaps where City of Atlantis is lost

There Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, Jack Frost, Frosty the Snowman are standing on wharfs

As The Gingerbread Man, Hansel and Gretel run to greet us as fast as they can

We see Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty each with their own fella

The Old Woman Who lived in a Shoe, Puss in Boots, The Elves and the Shoemaker have good news

The Billy Goats Gruff, the Three Pigs, Three Blind Mice, along with Goldilocks and the Three Bears want to prove they weren’t a bluff

The Ugly Duckling is inside Atlantis with The Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast - all chuckling

And the sweet Tooth Fairy still leaves coins as a treat.

United at last is The cow who jumped over the moon, The cat and the fiddle, and The dish who ran away with the spoon

Hickory dickory dock, that dang mouse won’t stop fiddling with the clocks

Jack be nimble Jack be quick and Little Jack Horner continue to do their tricks

While The Little Men dance with Little Red Riding Hood, swim with The Little Mermaid, and court The Little Women

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs and Humpty Dumpty play pegs

Dumbo and Pinocchio speak their own mumbo jumbo

The Princess and the Pea, Johnny Appleseed, and Jack with his Beanstalk are a glee

Things are a spinning as Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin are a grinning

Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Tom Thumb, Thumbelina want us to join them soon as we can

Along with Alice, to sip tea with the Easter Bunny in the Atlantis Palace.

Of all this I do not doubt, so let me just point out
I believe in Santa Claus too, do you?

© - Jeane Michelle Culp (#r3779xy1988CC€)

Thursday, December 24, 2015

A Christmas Hymn

A Christmas Hymn

Alfred Domett (1811 - 1887)

IT was the calm and silent night!
Seven hundred years and fifty-three
Had Rome been growing up to might,
And now was Queen of land and sea.
No sound was heard of clashing wars;
Peace brooded o’er the hush’d domain;
Apollo, Pallas, Jove and Mars,
Held undisturb’d their ancient reign,
In the solemn midnight
Centuries ago.

’T was in the calm and silent night!
The senator of haughty Rome
Impatient urged his chariot’s flight,
From lordly revel rolling home.
Triumphal arches gleaming swell
His breast with thoughts of boundless sway;
What reck’d the Roman what befell
A paltry province far away,
In the solemn midnight
Centuries ago!

Within that province far away
Went plodding home a weary boor:
A streak of light before him lay,
Fall’n through a half-shut stable door
Across his path. He pass’d—for nought
Told what was going on within;
How keen the stars! his only thought;
The air how calm and cold and thin,
In the solemn midnight
Centuries ago!

O strange indifference!—low and high
Drows’d over common joys and cares:
The earth was still—but knew not why;
The world was listening—unawares.
How calm a moment may precede
One that shall thrill the world for ever!
To that still moment none would heed,
Man’s doom was link’d, no more to sever,
In the solemn midnight
Centuries ago.

It is the calm and solemn night!
A thousand bells ring out, and throw
Their joyous peals abroad, and smite
The darkness, charm’d and holy now.
The night that erst no name had worn,
To it a happy name is given;
For in that stable lay new-born
The peaceful Prince of Earth and Heaven,
In the solemn midnight
Centuries ago.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Once Upon a Squirrelly Night

Once Upon a Squirrelly Night
 by Jean M. Culp ndpthepoetress

Up on a tree top,
Hop, hop, hop,
I saw Santa go flop, flop, flop.

Onto a limb he did bend,
Along came the snow & the wind began to blow,
Up in the tree top,
Hop, hop, hop,
I saw Santa drop, drop, drop.

He fell to the ground & looked all around,
And shouted to all & to all he said:
I think I hit my head!

Up in a tree top,
Hop, hop, hop,
I saw Santa go chop, chop, chop,
As he shouted with glee,
This will make a pretty Christmas Tree!

Up in the tree top,
Hop, hippity hop,
I saw Santa wiggle his red nose,
And atop the tree a star began to glow,
Santa was so happy he did such a jig that shook the twigs,
When up in the tree top,
Plop, plop, plop,
Down fell I onto this jolly guy, oh you should see those sparkles in his eyes.

As he laughed so loud it broke the clouds,
When down flew his reindeer and all his gear,
Then off to the North Pole he did fly,
And I swear this story is not a lie,
For he gave me these here nuts & some Band-Aids for my cuts!

Yes, once upon a tree top – hop, hop, hop,
I saw Santa go flop, flop, flop.

© - Jeane Michelle Culp (#Z987C46Y)

Monday, December 21, 2015

Leave Me Sleeping by Bennie Parker

Buy Bennie Parker's brand new ‪‎country‬ ‪‎album‬ via ‪Facebook‬'s new & secure payment option at https://www.facebook.com/benniectr/posts/970341009706804

$10 for a digital copy $15 for a physical copy

Great ‪Christmas‬ ‪‎gift‬!

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If you liked my video for my song "Leave Me Sleeping" then you need my brand new country album! :) Buy on FB today!$10...

Posted by Bennie Parker on Thursday, December 17, 2015

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