KEEP THE SPIRIT

 

Try to keep the spirit

Of Christmas true in your heart

Every day of the year

PANTER CLAUS

 

We’ll have a quiet night in

So let the festivities begin

I think it really is a thriller

To have you as a stocking filler

Do you think it shocking?

To want you in my stocking

But I’ll fill you with joy

If you’ll be my sex toy

I can be your secret Santa

You can be my sultry panter

A bit of festive rough and tumble

Ok then just a quick fumble

I thought you’d be up for a goose

They all said you were loose

Then you’re not a sure thing?

And you don’t swing?

No please don’t go home yet

I’m the best offer you’ll get

Sod it another quiet night in

Let the celibacies begin

EVERYONE IS SO HAPPY

 

Everyone is so happy

Damn them all to hell

But I drank too much last night

And today I feel unwell

 

The cheerful souls

Can’t abide to see a frown

And want me to turn

My frown upside down

 

At first, I decided

That I would merely scoff

But it didn’t work

So, I told them to piss off

CHRISTMAS PICKUP # 3

 

When you’re on the pull

If you want to break the ice

Say something funny

Or say something nice

Be complimentary

Or just lie in your endeavour

Be devastatingly witty

Or say something clever

During the Christmas season

Walk up to them and say sweetly

“Hey Angel, Shouldn't you

Be on top of the tree?”

LITTLE BOXES

 

Little parcels by the fireside

Little parcels wrapped in pretty paper

Little parcels by the fireside

Little labels all the same

There's a round one and a square one

And a long one and a squishy one,

And they're all wrapped in pretty paper

Little labels all the same

 

And the people in their houses

All sit beside the Christmas tree

And one un-wraps a pretty parcel

Then the others do the same

 

So the round one and the square one

And the long one and the squishy one,

That were all wrapped in pretty paper

Christmas presents is the name

THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS TIME

The magic of Christmas time

Is all the good will it brings

But sadly, it gets packed away

With the other Christmas things

SCROOGE and MARLEY (Deceased) – STAVE 4 – THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS – Verses 6 to 7

 A POEM by Paul Curtis, BASED ON THE STORY by

Charles Dickens “A CHRISTMAS CAROL”

 

VERSE 6 – BACK IN CAMDEN TOWN

 

Now the only emotion that the phantom could show

Caused by the death, was only one of pleasure though 

“Let me see some tenderness connected with a death,”

Said Scrooge; “Some tenderness spirit is my request”

The Ghost conducted him through alley and street

Road, lane and thoroughfare all of them familiar to his feet

And as they went along, Scrooge looked here and there

To find himself, but he could not see himself anywhere

They reached poor Bob Cratchit's humble house again 

And found around the fire sat mother and children

It was Quiet. Very quiet unnaturally so in Scrooges views

Even The noisy little Cratchit’s were as still as statues

Sat in a corner, looking up at Peter, who was reading

The mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing

It was very quiet as he read from the book before him

“And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.”

The mother laid her work upon the table at her side

Put her hand to her face to hide the tear she’d cried

“The color hurts my eyes,” she said to the children 

Then Mrs. Cratchit said, “They're better now again,

Sewing by candlelight makes them weak rather

And I wouldn't want to show weak eyes to your father

Not for the world I wouldn’t” she heard a bell chime

“No not when he comes home, it must be near his time.”

“Past it rather,” Peter answered, shutting up his book.

Then he walked to the window so that he could look

Then he said “But I think he's walked a little slower

These last few evenings, than he used to, mother”

They were quiet again. Until she broke the silence

And in a steady, cheerful voice, only faltering once

“I have known him walk with Tiny Tim on his shoulder

Very fast indeed.” “And so have I, often” cried Peter

“And so have I,” exclaimed another. So had they all.

“He was very light to carry,” she continued to recall

Resuming her work, “And his father loved him so,

That it was no trouble” she faltered “No trouble, no”

“There your father at the door!” continued the mother

She hurried to meet him as Bob stood in his comforter

He sat beside the fire as his wife prepared some tea

And they all tried to settle him down comfortably

Then the two young Cratchit’s got up on his knees

And each child kissed his cheek to set him at ease

He feigned good cheer and spoke to them all pleasantly

And Bob saw their work and he praised the industry

And the speed that Mrs. Cratchit and the girls display

He said they would be done long before next Sunday

“Sunday Robert! You went to-day, then?” she said

“Yes I went their today, my dear,” Bob responded

“I wish you had come, you could have seen It then

Seen how green a place it is but you'll see it often.

I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday”

His words deserted him then and he could only say

“My little, little child!” cried Bob. “My little son!”

He broke down the loss was to great of his little one

He couldn't help it. It was the price of feeling love

He left the room, and went up to the room above,

Which was lit cheerfully, and hung with Christmas.

And he entered and saw the cause of his distress

There was a chair set close beside the child’s bed

And he composed himself and kissed the little head

When he was reconciled to the loss of his little son

He went down stairs content to be with everyone

They drew about the fire, and huddled against the chill

And talked at length the girls and mother working still

Bob told them of the act of extraordinary kindness

By Mr. Scrooge's nephew who witnessed his distress

When they had met that very day in Camden town

And noticing that Bob looked more than a little down

Inquired what had happened to distress Bob Cratchit

“And as he is a nice fellow” said Bob, “I told him all of it.

'I am heartily sorry for it, Mr. Cratchit’, he said to me,

'And heartily sorry for your good wife most heartily’.

“By the bye, how he ever knew that, I don't know.”

“Knew what, my dear?” she said continuing to sew

“Why, that you were a good wife,” Bob said warmly

“Everybody knows that,” said Peter very proudly

“Very well observed,” cried Bob. “I hope they do.

'Heartily sorry,' he said, 'sorry for the both of you.

If I can be of service to you in any way,' said he,

Giving me his card, 'I live here. Pray come to me.”

It really seemed as if he knew our Tiny Tim, and felt it”

“I'm sure he's a good dear soul,” said Mrs. Cratchit.

“I shouldn't be at all surprised so mark what I say,”

Bob said, “If he got Peter a better situation one day

And Peter will make his way in some way or other

But however and whenever we part from one another,

I am sure we shall none of us forget poor Tiny Tim”

“Never, father!” cried them all. “We’ll never forget him”

“I know, my dears, that when we recollect how patient

And how mild he was and how happy and content

And although he was a little, little child we shall not

Easily quarrel, among ourselves” Bob said “and forget

Poor Tiny Tim in doing it.” “No, never!” they all said

“I am very happy,” said Bob, “I am very contented!”

Mrs. Cratchit kissed him; his daughters kissed him,

The two young Cratchit’s kissed him and he kissed them

Peter shook his father’s hands and gave a foppish nod

Spirit of Tiny Tim, thy childish essence was from God

 

VERSE 7 – WRITING ON THE STONE

 

“Spectre! Something tells me but I don’t know how”

Said Scrooge “That our parting moment is at hand now

Tell me what man that was whom we saw lying dead?”

The spirit did not speak yet conveyed him on instead

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come led him, as before

Through a different time, to another place in the future

“This court,” said Scrooge, “Is a very familiar location

And that’s my counting house and place of occupation

Spirit of the future let me behold what I shall be

In the days to come and see what becomes of me”

The Spirit stopped but the hand pointed elsewhere.

“It’s here” He exclaimed. “Why do you point there?”

But the bony spectral finger continued to point away

Scrooge rushed over to his office window anyway

He looked in, It was an office still, but not his own

The furniture was not the same and décor unknown

And the figure in the chair was not Scrooge clearly

The Phantom just pointed as before disinterestedly

Scrooge rejoined it once again and they continued

Until through iron gates a churchyard he viewed

Here than in a churchyard the man who lay dead

Under the sheet now lay beneath the earth instead

The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed to one

Scrooge advanced to it trembling, as it must be done

“Spirit before I draw nearer to that stone’s location,”

Pleaded Scrooge, “Answer me just one question.

Are these the shadows of the things that will be,

Or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”

Still the Ghost pointed to the grave it was stood by

Despite no response Scrooge was resigned to try

“Men's courses will foreshadow,” he began to plead

Certain ends, which, if persevered in, they must lead,”

“But if the courses be departed from, the ends will be

Changed, Say it is thus with what you show me.”

Scrooge crept towards the grave trembling madly

And read on the cold stone, Ebeneezer Scrooge. R.I.P. 

“Am I that man who lay upon the bed?” he cried,

Slumped to his knees he begged the spirit to confide 

The finger went from the grave to him and back again.

“No, Spirit! Please don’t send me to that dark domain”

“Good Spirit!” he cried, clutching at its robe tightly,

The finger still was there pointing. “Spirit hear me”

I’m not the man I was and I won’t be that man again

That I must have been but for this spiritual campaign

Why show me this, if I am past all hope good spirit?” 

“Oh Good Spirit,” he pursued and fell down before it

“Assure me that, by an altered life, you guarantee

I may change these shadows you have shown me.”

Then Scrooge with his hands trembling held his head

“I will honor Christmas in my heart”, Scrooge said

And I will try to keep it all the year you can be sure

I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future

And within me shall strive The Spirits of all Three

I will not shut out the lessons that they teach me

Oh, please tell me” Scrooge cried in a pleading tone

That I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”

In his agony, he caught the spectral hand of the spirit

It sought to free itself, but he was strong, and held it

The Spirit, stronger, shook him and left him prostrate

He held up his hands in a last prayer to save his fate

He saw a change in hood and dress of his spirit host

It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled into a bedpost