Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.15.6.77
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
Once, it was a time of true magic, when the world was small and soft. It had to be magic, my mind of five told me: how else could my brothers and I go to sleep on an ordinary, dull and quiet night... to awaken in sheer joy the next morn as though we had been zapped by a warm bolt of harmless lightning-- setting our now restless bodies tingling. Like racehorses at the gate of magic, we stood at the top of the stairs, pulling at whatever patience we could muster under the admonitions of Mom and Dad to wait!-- wait! the camera must be loaded-- but how very painful it was to be still when we knew that children's paradise was a stairway away-- and what a paradise we saw unfolded in our now unfamiliar living room! The tree drew our eyes first--it was big and fat, with its branches sagging under the great weight of all its myriad ornaments: glass balls and sweets and plastic candy canes and tinsel drooping as though it hung on a some forsaken weeping willow instead of a tall, proud Blue Spruce : and millions and millions and millions of colored lights, blinking relentlessly, made our tree sparkle like the royal crown of a giant king-- perhaps the King of Toys, for toys were seen everywhere we looked: cars ,trucks , bikes, games, bats-- and balls! Each brother ran quickly to his own precious pile (we marveled how thoughtful Santa must be) and knew in each pile would be some boxes beautifully wrapped but sans treasure, holding only socks or shirts, perhaps a sweater-- well, even the jolly fat man could not be perfect-- still, he brought magic to our dull house every year, transforming our prosaic lives into poetry overnight by wonder, by magic, by love.... And when he went away, when I was an ancient six, the world grew much bigger but colder, dull and empty of that special joy that can only come to those children who believe.... [Note: This bittersweet poem was also bittersweet to write, as losing childhood itself is bittersweet.] rec'd n/a in Regina McIntosh's contest, 12/18/20
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required