Book of Past Challenges

From the Heart

From the Heart

Exhausted from his midnight trek Old Nick
collapsed in a fold. These annual Christmas trips
were harder and harder each year. While his hips
got larger and larger and he became less quick.
                   To Santa with Love.

He drug his almost empty sack from the sleigh
and said, "What ho? What is this that I missed?"
It tumbled to the snow. Had he been remiss?
A gift to whom? He'd like to know, but wait . .
                   To Santa with Love.

He raised his eyebrow in discovery mode
when recognizing the hand of Lilly Elf,
the precious pixie in charge of "do it yourself"
she spoke for all when she tearfully wrote the ode.
                   To Santa with Love.

It seems his elves noticed his growing girth
and decided he needed a scheduled, active life
so gifted a Fit-Bit to help Santa thrive
and cookies scratched from his diet herewith.
                   To Santa with Love.
                             ~~Judi Van Gorder

Notes: ▼

20 Lines

"day 27"  

Theme: Sad Santa. Santa's been all 'round the world and every single deserving person on his journey has gotten one of Santa's gifts. But he has just discovered that he still has one small gift left in the bottom of his pack. He doesn't know what to do! Cannot give it to the world. It doesn't contain a cure for any disease, it can't make everyone nice, isn't money and it can't bring world peace. It isn't an embodiment of hope or joy.

It is a concrete thing that can be placed in a box, wrapped and given. While not necessarily a toy, it is something one can hold in their hands. Who gets it? Why? What is it? What will make Santa happy? Hurry, dawn is approaching and Santa must give out everything in his pack before the first rays of the sun break the horizon.

Words to use: precious, tear, eyebrow, fold
Forbidden words: none today

Additional parameters: Rhyming - must use at least 3 'slant' rhymes, descriptive, at least 15 lines.

Stanzaic Form Used: The Tennyson   is a stanzaic form patterned after Ask Me No More by English poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1802-1892). The elements of the Tennyson are:
1. stanzaic, written in any number of cinquains.
2. metric, iambic, L1-L4 are pentameter and L5 is dimeter.
3. rhymed, envelope rhyme scheme abbaC deedC fggfC etc. 
4. written in with L5 as a refrain repeated from stanza to stanza.