|
|
![Reply to this topic](style_images/antique/t_reply.gif) ![Start new topic](style_images/antique/t_new.gif) |
A Carol for Christmas, 6th annual MMHC |
|
|
|
Dec 14 09, 13:44
|
Group: Gold Member
Posts: 783
Joined: 24-July 07
From: South Africa
Member No.: 457
Real Name: Walter Schwim
Writer of: Poetry & Prose
Referred By:Mistral
![](style_images/antique/spacer.gif)
|
A Carol for Christmas
December is hot and humid in Johannesburg. Breeze, strangled by buildings chooses not enter the city, preferring to sulk on the outskirts where it stirs shredded plastic bags between the haphazard rows of stinking shacks.
Every day, thunderheads build in the south then move in, storm-troopers clearing the city slums, washing litter from pot-holed streets into the grey poisoned waters of Braamfontein Spruit.
The turbulent sky is alive with birds. Opportunistic gray gulls swerve and ride the air-currents, diving down to grab any scrap of discarded offal tossed from the countless white minivan taxis moving like fat termites among a mass of black ants that teem the colourful sidewalks.
Sacred Ibis fly overhead in pulsating vee formations, beating their way upwind from garbage dump to the stagnant East Rand swamps while swallows, swoop and skim the grey concrete buildings, snapping up big shiny green bottle flies. Feral pigeons occupy every available ledge and rooftop.
Who knows what inhabits the sewers below?
And on the streets, amongst the throng of jostling bodies - move the vultures;
Beggars and street kids - minds blown on petrol and glue, hawkers of cheap Chinese imitation brands, pirated music, petty thieves, porn-brokers and scamsters. Lurking in the shadows are the syndicated gangsters; pimps, prostitutes, drug peddlers and car hijackers; gun dealers, fences and identity sellers.
Everything has a price . . . And the city never sleeps, even today.
An Indian shopkeeper looks out from his armoured sanctum within the steel cage that protects his meagre stock. Will the next “customer” pay up in Kalashnikov currency or 9mm parabellum ?
![](http://www.cathedraljoburg.co.za/objects/StMarys-outside.JPG)
The sandstone walls of St Mary’s cathedral on Wanderers Street were not always so shabby and its red Romanesque roof not as faded.
The bell no longer tolls and the huge mahogany door is only unlocked for services.
Inside, however, city noises vanish! Peace descends upon the visitor staring up at soaring white-plastered columns and graceful arches - five stories high! Glossy parquet floors, beautiful stained glass windows and simple wooden benches remain just as they were back in the heady days of the gold-rush.
Next door, the “Chapel of Remembrance” lists some Eight thousand citizens who died in the second world war and its said that ghosts of the apartheid struggle walk the isles hand in hand with the some of early pioneers - like CJ Rhodes and other servants of her Majesty the Queen.
![](http://www.cathedraljoburg.co.za/objects/StMarys-highaltar.JPG)
The magnificent pipe-organ still lifts its voice on Sundays, soaring through the airy dome, raising the spirits of three hundred worshipers - where once two thousand were seated!
Today is the 25th; congregants pack the pews, spilling out into Wanderers street. Worshipers from all over Africa add their voices to the great organ and hymns rise in a crescendo of praise that roars aloft - past the pigeons and swallows, past the soaring crows – into the belly of the cumulating storm who’s thunder reverberates between the buildings.
The Son of God smiles and touches the city with a beam of sunlight, bathing the cathedral in a glow of forgiveness . For one brief moment, everyone stops what they were doing to listen. Perhaps, somewhere in this man-made hell on Earth, one sinner will be touched by the holy spirit and be cleansed at last. © WW Schwim 14 December 2009
······· ![IPB](style_images/antique/sigsep.gif) ·······
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 14 09, 14:39
|
![](https://forums.mosaicmusings.net/uploads/av-78.jpg)
Ornate Oracle
![Group Icon](style_images/antique/folder_team_icons/mod.gif)
Group: Praetorian
Posts: 8,983
Joined: 27-August 04
From: Bariloche, Argentine Patagonia
Member No.: 78
Real Name: Sylvia Evelyn Maclagan
Writer of: Poetry & Prose
Referred By:David Ting
![](style_images/antique/spacer.gif)
|
Hi Wally!
The first part sounds like Buenos Aires...
I notice that this year there's a majority of sad Christmas poems. Good thing Lori eliminated the original bit about 'edifying or uplifting', coz otherwise there would be few entries. Sad, but true.
Can't comment or crit the poem itself in this forum. Just stepped in to have my say.
Hugzzz, Syl***
······· ![IPB](style_images/antique/sigsep.gif) ·······
Mis temas favoritos The Lord replied, my precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.
"There is no life higher than the grasstops Or the hearts of sheep, and the wind Pours by like destiny, bending Everything in one direction."
Sylvia Plath, Crossing the Water, Wuthering Heights. Nominate a poem for the InterBoard Poetry Competition by taking into careful consideration those poems you feel would best represent Mosaic Musings. For details, click into the IBPC nomination forum. Did that poem just captivate you? Nominate it for the Faery award today! If perfection of form allured your muse, propose the Crown Jewels award. For more information, click here!MM Award Winner ![](http://www.mosaicmusings.net/images/IBPCtn.jpg)
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 14 09, 19:17
|
![](https://forums.mosaicmusings.net/uploads/av-2.bmp)
Mosaic Master
![Group Icon](style_images/antique/folder_team_icons/admin.gif)
Group: Administrator
Posts: 18,892
Joined: 1-August 03
From: Massachusetts
Member No.: 2
Real Name: Lori Kanter
Writer of: Poetry & Prose
Referred By:Imhotep
![](style_images/antique/spacer.gif)
|
Thank you for your Holiday entry Wally!
Best of luck!
May the 'classic' holiday spirit be shared in your heart throughout the season!
~ Mosaic Musings Staff ![knight.gif](http://forumimages.mosaicmusings.net/style_emoticons/default/knight.gif)
······· ![IPB](style_images/antique/sigsep.gif) ·······
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the RingsCollaboration feeds innovation. In the spirit of workshopping, please revisit those threads you've critiqued to see if the author has incorporated your ideas, or requests further feedback from you. In addition, reciprocate with those who've responded to you in kind. "I believe it is the act of remembrance, long after our bones have turned to dust, to be the true essence of an afterlife." ~ Lorraine M. KanterNominate a poem for the InterBoard Poetry Competition by taking into careful consideration those poems you feel would best represent Mosaic Musings. For details, click into the IBPC nomination forum. Did that poem just captivate you? Nominate it for the Faery award today! If perfection of form allured your muse, propose the Crown Jewels award. For more information, click here! "Worry looks around, Sorry looks back, Faith looks up." ~ Early detection can save your life.MM Award Winner ![](http://www.mosaicmusings.net/images/IBPCtn.jpg)
|
|
|
|
1 User(s) are reading this topic (1 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members:
|
![Reply to this topic](style_images/antique/t_reply.gif) ![Start new topic](style_images/antique/t_new.gif) |
Read our FLYERS - click below
Reference links provided to aid in fine-tuning
your writings. ENJOY!
|
|
|
|