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Cup prompt - Christmas Tradition in Wales |
Theme: Christmas Traditions Around the World. (go for the obscure!) Pick somewhere you've never been. Research and then write your poem about a Christmas tradition (up through New Year's) practiced there now or in the past.. Words to use: The name of the country you pick, the tradition Forbidden words: none but be creative! Must rhyme The Mari Lwyd Bridled in stars with harness of gold the skull of a horse with shining eyes goes hovel to castle with plaintive plea to battle-verse to get inside. Reminder of those who are dead and gone, a battle of wits to get out of the cold a rhymed exchange: to the winner comes warmth thus words fly both brave and bold. Bridled in shadow, saddled in scream once left her stable for infant birth and now she sings deep in the night seeking a Welsh hearth on lowly earth. The dead still wander in need of light, forget-them-not for still they roam. Betwixt Christmas and Old Year's passing they will attempt to invade your home. Bridled in sadness, harnessed in fear, oft in song they trot the night. Be quickened in your poetic reply else a battle ensue for wordsmith right. Across yon moors, benear sea cliff where stars reflect in seamless sea, winter's death is sought; kill frigid night one yearns for Spring's fetility. Bridled in seafrost, reined in by hail the Winter Mare begs at the door-- let her in and chaos reigns in dead of Winter says ancient lore. O white is the frost on the breath-bleared panes and the starlike fire within, and our Mari is white in her starry reins starved through flesh and skin. It is a skull we carry in the ribbons of a bride. Bones of the Nightfrost parry, bones of the Fire inside.* *(Paragraphs in Italics taken from the ‘Ballad of the Mari Lwyd’, Vernon Watkins 1906 – 1967.) |