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Storytime Tapestry Newsletter
The newsletter devoted to
spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.
December 28, 2007
Today’s Announcement
Happy
Birthday Laura Brace: lbrace@sbcglobal.net
The Latest on Matt’s Mom is that she has
kidney stones, please continue to pray from her recovery.
Christmas is just around the corner and
most of you have already started to think about Christmas gifts for this
season. Why not help out Storytime
Tapestry with its ongoing commitment to provide you with free wonderful stories
and poems daily by purchasing the publisher’s newest book for someone special
on your holiday gift giving list this year.
Angels Watching Over Me can be published through lulu press in both hard
copy and e-book. Just click on the link:
Angels Watching Over Me
Important notice: Storytime Tapestry is a
free e-zine, however donations are always needed to help with the operating
expenses of running the newsletter and to keep Storytime Tapestry the quality
newsletter you are so accustomed to. You can make your donations to paypal at:
winterose@videotron.ca, or if you would prefer to use the mail system contact
the publisher at the same email address: winterose@videotron.ca
Today’s Christmas Stories
~**~**~
Thank You
Sharon Bryant
Since my place of business is in a historic area, we have
tours for children. We show them how Christmas was celebrated in the
1800's.
Yesterday there were several schools with lots of kids,
teachers, and parents.
A tall man walked into the shop, wearing a U.S. Army fatigue
uniform. He was with his little girl on the trip.
She picked out the items she wanted and set them on the
counter for me to ring up on the register.
Her daddy stepped forward to pay.
I looked at the child who wasn't more than eight years
old, then back at her daddy.
"Thank you for serving your country," I said.
He looked up at me and for a moment, said nothing.
Then he said, "Do you know how much that means to me?" "I
hope I do," I replied.
He's home on leave from Iraq, after serving
two deployments.
He's helping me find a military family to give a surprise
Christmas to this year. I love surprises and knowing how tough it can be
on the home front, I want to help a mom with small children.
I can't forget the years when I was involved during a war
and was home alone at the Holidays. I was lucky to have a bottle of milk
let alone pay the rent on a naval housing apartment. I didn't have
children at the time, and looking back, had I had any, I know we would
have never made it financially.
Funny, how saying "Thank you," can mean so
much.
Sharon Bryant
1946@bellsouth.net
~**~**~
Christmas Poetry Corner
~**~**~
For truly, "The Nam" affected
Generations of the living,
dead, and those unborn.
It will be a long time before
the note Vietnam plucked
On time's heart strings will
sound its last...
I sincerely wish the
yuletide spirit of Christmas Love abides in your heart, hearth and home
throughout this festive season...with the joy of peace to attend thee
during all the year. I give unto you these poems of
Christmastime so gay:
Christmas in a Foxhole and A Soldier’s
Bright Christmas Star (published yesterday)
****************
Christmas in a Foxhole
to
beautiful Christmas songs,
Here: I Wonder How I Wonder.
On website:"0, Holy Night"
http://namtour.com/foxhole.html
by
Gary Jacobson © December 2003
On this holiest night of the
year,
Soldiers of God in
battlefields far and away,
Draw near...
Hark, a “boy next door” in
combat role,
Spending Christmas in a
foxhole
Abiding war’s downright
dangerous rigmarole
Bearing honor ensconced in
patriotic refrains,
Echoing faintly glorious
strains
Christmas ideals
impressionable stains
Forever ingrained on young
hearts reigns.
Look ye to the wisemen’s star
Shining above Vietnam afar
Shining on a not-so-festive
jungle site.
Yet all is calm on this most
Holy Night,
This brisk winter night.
At least till the next
firefight.
For Vietcong elves, merry and
wild,
Neither tender nor mild,
Will not let him sleep in
heavenly peace.
Too much to ask that for one
night
A soldier might be granted
release,
The killing might cease.
He thought of Santa and his
sleigh,
Laughed at thought of his
calling today.
The only man Nam’s likely to see lively and
quick
Sure ain’t Saint Nick...
More likely the devil, Old
Nick,
One of them Vietcong dipsticks
Who in the worst way want to
give
This “boy next door” licks,
To deck his halls,
Kick his b____, uh, er, hind
end.
When specters of death all
around you falls,
Holiday spirit kinda palls.
Dreams of mistletoe set his
heart all aglow,
But nobody's in the foxhole
but GI Joe
And no way's anybody kissin'
him anyway
So no tidings of comfort and
joy today,
No sweet young things here to
make hearts go astray.
Yeah, I know, no reindeer
tonight!
There’s no kind of merry delight
in sight,
Standing guard late into the
night
On Christmas Eve, on Christmas
Eve,
Still trying hard, still to
believe,
In fading hopes of peace on
earth,
Praying for one special night,
fears might leave,
Good will to men reprieve.
He dreams of chestnuts
roasting on an open fire,
Of yuletide carols sung by a
choir.
As on sweet and sour air in
the distance roll,
A singing, ringing bell’s
joyous toll...
Or is it the sound of guns,
Drum, drum, drumming,
Stalking ever nearer,
step-by-step coming,
Into his perimeter mortar’s
walking,
VC firing for effect
hearkening
Attendant death’s affrighted
fears
A new borne sound bearing
gifts he hears.
As he stands guard, weary
tears wet his eyes,
Wondering if tonight will be
the holy night
He dies!
Sweating,
Grieving,
For a world in sin and error
pining
For hearth and home in quiet
times yearning
Silently, secretly, praying
He’ll live to see coming morn.
In Vietnam so all alone, so forlorn,
Dreaming of home, mother and
apple pie,
Cursing the light of a killing
moon in the sky.
Searching his body for
blood-lusting leeches
He humbly beseeches...
"Oh God, I pray tonight
Will be a silent night.
Stifle Ye waves of war’s
withering blight,
Temper it with Thine Holy
Light...
Hallelujah,
To the dawn of Thy redeeming
grace
Hallelujah...hallelujah!
Oh God help me, help me,
In this hour Thine sacred
faith to embrace.
Oh Thou King Of Kings, Help
me,
I’m too young to see thy Holy
Face."
Beside the foxhole he lays his
weary head,
Listening as ‘outgoing’ night
rounds pass
Just overhead,
Sent on appointed rounds,
their desolation to spread
Spreading their particular
kind of joy,
To Vietcong who in darkning
jungles deploy
On this sacred Christmas Eve
This war the holidays do
thieve.
He listens tight for
‘incoming’ artillery,
Sweltering mid war’s
debauchery,
Senseless butchery.
War's man’s inhumanity to man,
Raging rampant throughout this
fevered land.
He thinks of terrible
consequences dire
Animosity this ancient nation
enflamed
So many men embroiled in
hating’s ire.
Why did he have to be the one
called
To put out the fire?
He aches in his gut from black
water that stank,
Moving and rank,
Athirsting on his last patrol
he drank.
His Christmas gift’s a case of
dysentery,
Sick and tired of Nam’s humbug festoonery
War’s political flimflammery.
He dreams silent dreams
Of his own round yon virgin at
home
His mother and child back in
“the world,”
All alone.
Waiting for him,
Just him...
His jungled hall’s definitely
not decked
With boughs of holly,
Be quite a while before he
feels really jolly...
Still dreaming dreams of joy
to come
When a big silver bird will
carry him home.
To make that last air assault
on LZ Travis...
He’ll sing Joy to “the world”
as no more he has
To battle Mr. Charles
face-to-face, vis-?-vis.
On this Christmas Eve the boy’s
dreaming
Of his farewell to "the
Nam" bidding
Saying goodbye to Nam’s unholy
combat matrix,
A hell-inspired mix,
Dreaming of Nam for the last
time vanishing
Out his rear door six.
Then...
A God-awful sound rustles in
the jungle
Setting hair on his spine all
a-tingle.
That sound sure ain’t made by
jingle bells.
It’s likely another kind of
bell that knells
Just one of a thousand little
hells,
From the very ruler of hell
Like a quieted noise of a
rifle bolt when it clicks,
A sound that truly makes
sinking hearts sick.
On this Christmas night, Holy
night,
He can’t bear for life to
fight,
No, no, not tonight.
Let there be peace tonight...
Spirits of Christmas combat
his soul bedight,
Writing what may be his last
words in a poem,
A book of war Tome
Of being ever ready.
His nerves somehow steady.
He must be brave,
If he is his soul on Christmas
Eve to save.
Still, still,
He sees the star of the Holy
night,
Under an alien moon killing
bright,
In merriment through fetid
jungles streaming,
To silhouette his body in
bright shining
Exposing an enemy
marauding...backlighting.
Hark, hear the herald angel
voices,
A battle looms mid Christmas
rejoices.
Tracers join the triumph of
the skies,
Shouts of pain angelic hosts
proclaim
Exploding crescendos, who’s to
blame.
Still, still, they’re coming
rampaging
Coming to kill and maim.
Just one more fight in a weary
night that bites,
Just one more in a series of
forsaken nights.
Hold bleak hope in a glorious
morn,
All hopes of Christmas joy in
a foxhole shorn,
His soul not feeling its
chosen worth
Enmired in civility's
blackened dearth,
On this night of the dear
Savior's birth
Dreaming far away where a
weary world rejoices
Without him,
Without him!
************
Gary
Gary Jacobson
"Vietnam Picture Tour," http://namtour.com/namtour.html A
walk in "the park" grunts called Vietnam, with the 1st Air Cavalry on combat patrol. Experience chilling
reality to leave the sweet and sour taste of "the Nam" pungent on your tongue, the smell of "the Nam" acrid in your nostrils, and textures of "the Nam" imbedded in you as though you were walking beside me in
combat.
My poignant poems directory, pictures and artwork to show the essence and
feeling of war on young "boys next door," http://namtour.com/nampoemsNpix.html
Realm Of Poetry," http://namtour.com/P/RealmOfPoetry.html Poems
of love and romance, spirituality and meditation, Golden Oldies, comedy, Quests
of the regal knight Richard Lionheart to the crusades and seeking the Holy
Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies, and comedy....and also links to my
site of riding that bestial ogre called war...
~**~**~
Readers Feedback
~**~**~
Here are the Published Christmas entries to
Date. If you want to review the stories
or poems before voting which will come only at the end of this contest, just go
to the archives: http://archives.zinester.com/98907
Stories
Name Story Date
Williams, Cheryl Christmas:
Look forward to it …. December 20
Haley, Ellie Braun A
Christmas Story December
20
Bryant, Sharon I Walked
The Halls December
21
Bryant, Sharon Believing December
21
Lock, Joyce Abbreviated
Christmas December 21
Smith, Michael Memory
Tree December
22
Walker, Bill Mary
Did You Know? December 22
Levine, Arthur The
Troubled Geese At Christmas December
23
Walker, Bill Christmas
Lights December
23
Mazzella, Joe Christmas
Gifts December 23
Wilson, Mary Through
the Eyes of Mary December
24
Walker, Bill Jesus
and Santa December
24
Colasanti, James An
Angel In Between December
25
Walker, Joe The
Two Sides of Christmas December
25
Dowd, Helen Tintagel
The Forest Angel December
26
Walker, Bill The Christmas Gift December 26
Wersterfer, Clara No
Christmas Presents December 27
Wainland, David Christmas
Doesn’t Get Any Better
At the North Pole December 27
Blaine, Pamela Christmas
at Baring School December 28
Bryant, Sharon Thank You December
28
Poems
Name Poem Date
Cardinal, Conrad Make
a Wish Come True December
20
Cardinal, Conrad Why? December
20
Ebling, Leonia A Gift Of Love December 21
Ebling, Leonia God’s
Decorating December
21
Meeks, Carol Joseph’s
Example December
22
Meeks, Carol Stable
Born King December
22
Meeks, Carol Come
Into Our Christmas Parlor December
23
Costner, Joan Clifton Can’t
Take Christmas December
24
Costner, Joan Clifton Our
Boys Are Coming Home December
24
Costner, Joan Clifton There’s
More December
25
Pringle, Sandra Lewis Poem For Children December
26
Jacobson, Gary A Soldier’s Bright Christmas Star December 27
Jacobson, Gary Christmas
In a Foxhole December
28
Here is our Storytime
Tapestry Angels: Also, I would like to thank those of you who chose to
be a silent angel and gave an anonymous donation to keep Storytime
Tapestry up and running.
Clara Westerfer, Mark Crider,
Rosanne Catalano, Paula Booher, Kay Seefeldt, Mariane Holbrook, Mary Ellen
Grisham, Louise Nomani, Sharon Bryant, Angela Walker, Hart and Helen Dowd,
Keith Ready, Ginger Morgenstern, Ellie Braun-Haley, Surinder Jandu, Bob Shaw,
Carol Meeks, Charlotte Hilliard, Maria Keller
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