Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

My Happy Place

The New Year arrives at My Happy Place late in the afternoon
By postal motorboat.
We pick it from the splinters and debris in the churning surf,
And carry it up to the house;
"Welcome to My Happy Place," we tell it,
But it only stares fixedly, as if dead.

We put The New Year to bed in one of the guest rooms,
After taking away its shoe laces and belt.
At My Happy Place, we are always at the ready for visitors--
We keep soft restraints in a drawer,
And kindly old Doctor Bubo looks in, though we are never sure that he really understands
Us,
Our guests,
Or My Happy Place at all.

At twelve, The New Year steps out into the night
Near the cupola.
It uses its torn bed sheets to communicate by semaphore
With various monsters and suicides
Out in the deep.
We want to release a flock of doves from the lawn of My Happy Place,
But all that we have is a dead pigeon;
We toss it up into the gale, and it seems to fly for a moment
--noble creature!--
Before thumping listlessly against the bricks and then the ground.

Welcome, New Year, to My Happy Place!
Be mindful of our pitched and slippery roof;
Hold that rose firmly between your teeth,
While stretching out your arms like an aeroplane.
They say that
Birth and Death are less different than the same,
And that all the doors at My Happy Place
Open as easily outward
As in.
____


Happy New Year's, my second least favorite holiday after Independence Day.

25 comments:

  1. : ( sorry you are not fond of new years...eh...i can take it or leave it...it is a fresh page in some ways...in others flies as well as a dead pigeon...love your creativity...andhey at least you have a happy place to retreat to...best wishes shay on yet another day...smiles...

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  2. What a way to end 2011 ... postal motorboat! My evening is solitary, glass of wine, good book, fire burning, snug and cozy .. just the way I like it! Cheers!

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  3. I sense a deep spiritual discontent here--a longing for hope and change, for a gentle breeze to lift itself against your troubled soul and remove the beads of blood, sweat and cleaning product residue...Well, tough luck, lambchop--that boat has sailed(apparently it was a postal motorboat--or a motorboat gone postal.) But nonetheless, you will manage to construct some Frankensteinien Unicorn with those five pens that you can ride the hell out of dodge on.

    I have faith, because you keep writing stuff like this.

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  4. I love these lines, Shay:

    "After taking away its shoe laces and belt.
    At My Happy Place, we are always at the ready for visitors--
    We keep soft restraints in a drawer"

    "It uses its torn bed sheets to communicate by semaphore
    With various monsters and suicides"

    ~Shawna
    (rosemarymint.wordpress.com)

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  5. I like how you put the postal vehicle in there. Yeah - I like this holiday this year because it is on the weekend and gets me Monday off.

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  6. I too hate 4th of July, and as for New Year's Eve, I would have preferred staying home with a book than going to the party that I went to. No happy place for me, unfortunately.

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  7. I hung out with some of my best friends in my pj's with food and wine...that's my happy place :) As for N.Y.'s...it was a good excuse to get together with friends and eat junk! Again, I learned some new words from you today :)

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  8. I'm with you on this one. The dark humour hits just the right note... but then I learned this morning that one of our matriculant students was struck dead by lightning 2 hours before New Year, so 2012 already seems doomed.

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  9. love the imagery.. esp. the communicating with torn bed sheets with the monsters and suicides..probably christmas and new year's eve are the two dates in the year where most of those monsters run free and a lot of people get desperate.. wishing you great and monster-free new year shay

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  10. Like Claudia I was impressed by the torn sheet metaphor, but it was the final stanza that really bowled me over. Overall the poem works extremely well for me.

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  11. love your way of description - the personification of new year - some really great lines too "It uses its torn bed sheets to communicate by semaphore
    With various monsters and suicides
    Out in the deep." - brilliantly creative here! nice!

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  12. We make so much of this day, which is really just an ordinary day, not really different from the one that preceded it or follows it and yet we imbue it with unrestrained possibility.

    Happy new year Shay.

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  13. Happy New Year, Shay. A poignant write, filled with haunting beauty. I woke before sunrise to wind-tossed Pine trees and tinkling windchimes with a hint of birdsong. Who could ask for more? xoxo

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  14. you've brought the New Year alive... gonna check my quest room right now

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  15. i'm with you fireblossom on the letdown of new years as a holiday. "soft restraints" love it, my dear!

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  16. Agree with Ostensible Truth, your creativity is what should be highlighted in our input as co-conspirators of 'creative writing' promulgators.

    Agree with the position that too much emphasis and attention is given to any one particular designated day by celebrating it as something profound.

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  17. Do you serve Happy Meals at your Happy Place?

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  18. Our Happy Places seem to offer the New Year very similar welcomes.

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  19. OMG. Put the old year to bed after removing its shoelaces and belt. I read this with a huge grin on my face. You are simply TOO MUCH - yet you always leave us Wanting More. More, please.

    Kerry's comment sobered me though. So sad.

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  20. Half the holidays are 'greeting card' holidays .. the rest are just another way to boost commercialism

    ★☆ ✿¸.•*¨★*☆*★`*•..¸✿ ☆¯`★
    ★[̲̅̅H̲̅][̲̅̅A̲̅][̲̅̅P̲̅][̲̅̅P̲̅][̲̅̅Y̲̅]★[̲̅̅N̲̅][̲̅̅E̲̅][̲̅̅W̲̅]★[̲̅̅Y̲̅][̲̅̅E̲̅][̲̅̅A̲̅][̲̅̅R̲̅]★
    *”˜˜”*°•.♥ღϠ₡ღ♥♥ღϠ₡ღ♥♥ღϠ₡ღ*”˜”*
    ┊ ┊
    ┊ ☆┊ ┊
    ☆┊ ┊
    ┊ ☆

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  21. Boy, this is one weird poem. And I mean that as a compliment - really like it.

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  22. Happy New Year! I hope it's a great one!

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  23. Love the creativity in this - New Year's Eve can bring out the shadows in people

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  24. I like this!
    Happy place- nice concept. New Years didn't live up to its billing-
    I do my resolutions and review:
    prn :as needed...

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  25. brilliant! a little (?) twisted, but brilliant!

    "happy" new year, Shay!

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