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Hi CyberPoets, The holidays are upon us. Those of us who celebrate Christmas are rushing about buying last minute gifts. Paper scraps, gift tags, and ribbon ends litter our floors. And the aroma from the kitchen informs us that diets are to be ignored. Don't you just love Christmas cookies. According to the most recent statistics, you will gain exactly one pound due to eggnog, fruitcake, and other holiday treats. That's not so bad. The unfortunate truth though is that you will keep that one pound for the rest of your life, and it really doesn't matter if you deprive yourself or not. So you might as well enjoy. That's what they say anyway. In a very few days, we will be celebrating the year's end. With it, we will be discovering first-hand whether the Y2K anxieties were mere paranoia or legitimate fears. I make no predictions except to say that if the absolute worst happens, this will not only be the last newsletter of 1999, but the last newsletter. AngelPie_Mouse
Of the forty-eight members of CPN, eighteen are members with showcase pages on the club homepage. In alphabetic order, showcase members are: AngelPie_Mouse, ArrylT, Cendrilloner (new page), Crowstouch, Elfenone, Faerimuse, Jazz_85 (new page), Isitis, Lane_Ware, Mgonzalez01, MooseLodge1999, NALewis, Oldcusser, Poetry_Gal, Romusthepoet, Sis_Sarana19 (new page), Telescope07, and TheCyberwitch. If you want to be added, see the homepage Showcase Questionnaire. This month (between November 21 and December 20) contributions were added to the showcase pages for the following members: Cendrilloner, Crowstouch, Jazz_85, MGonzalez01, OldCusser, Poetry_Gal, RomusthePoet, and Telescope07, -- or for eight of our eighteen showcase members. You may view these additions by clicking the name (on the website repost of this newsletter only).
This month, for the month of December, the poem was started by Poetry_Gal and the topic was "winter" and the Club composed this poem:
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Club Ranking. The ranking of clubs in Yahoo! Is based solely on the number of members, not on member participation. This month we gained three new members and lost two. I asked the two departing members why they quit. One told me it had nothing to do with the club, which she thought was great, just personal stuff. The other hasn't answered me, and I suppose that indicates something along similar lines�just not enough time to be involved. Still the sad news is that we slipped to 21st position among the standings of Yahoo! Chat Clubs of our category from a tie in 20th position last month. New Members. We have three new members this month: KATTLYN, paty_md, and royalpain99. We're really glad they could join us and hope they will soon be posting some of their own verse and offering wisdom and insights on the verse of their fellow club members. Again, Welcome KATTLYN, paty_md, and royalpain99!
This month we've been celebrating the work of Dylan Marlais Thomas, the Welsh poet of the mid 20th century. Like many poets, Thomas was also a short story writer and playwright. Both art forms are the natural development out of the performance art that poetry is meant to be. Indeed, the short story is often referred to as the novel of the poet. Thus, in that vein, we present on our website only Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales" at http://www.geocities.com/cyber_poets/pom/achildschristmas1.html . We hope you will look in, read, and enjoy.
In the 19th century, it had become the custom to send out greeting cards at Christmas time. Most people used them as an opportunity to write and enclose personal correspondence, share the comings and goings of their lives, and catch up on social contacts (this is pre-Hallmark, of course). I am not sure of his day job, but according to the story, Clement Clarke Moore was supposed to be writing such correspondence when he sat down one December evening and penned these words:
Thus, he expanded the vernacular image of Father Christmas, re-christened him, and fostered physical attributes that would later be brought out in the drawings of Thomas Nast. Seems a fair illustration of the power of one poem. If you would like to see the entire of the poem, please visit my personal website at: http://www.geocities.com/AngelPie_Mouse/christmas/christmas.html
For those who check the Readability of this newsletter: Flesch Reading Ease: 60.6 (within average) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 8.3 (slightly higher than average).
It is best viewed on a 800x600 screen set for True Color
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