It's beginning to look like Christmas everywhere in my home. Decorating for the season or holiday is one of my passions. I enjoy creating a home that brings the beauty of the outside in and the decorative spirit to the outside. What makes my new Virginia home different from my Long Island one is the open concept house where I can easily blend some of the old (antique pieces) with the new.
I opened the door so you can step into my foyer and study. The flocked pencil tree greets everyone. You can see some antique pieces mixed with my new furniture.
Christmas is one of my favorite holidays because of its connection to faith, family, and hope for brighter times. The latter is especially needed now.
Take a peek at some of the decorated corners. The foyer is still in the planning stages.
Sing to the holly, the Christmas holly,
a chant sublime.
Nature lends her voice to praises
in the jingle-jangle mornin'.
Waiting to remember exactly,
it calls us, with an angel's voice.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky.
Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.
Wonder upon wonder.
©CV, 2021, Cento Poem
Sources for My Cento Poem
Title: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas by Michael Buble
1. The Christmas Holly by Eliza Cook
2. Christmas Bells by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow3. Christmas Carol by Paul Laurence Dunbar4. Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds5. Ship's Manifest by Amanda Gorman6. Music on a Christmas Morning by Emily Bronte7. Ring Out Wild Bells by Alfred Lord Tennyson8. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess9. O Holy Night by John Sullivan Dwight10. Before the ice is in the pools by Emily DickensonThank yous are extended to Mary Lee Hahn who inspired me to take on the Inklings' challenge suggested by Molly Hogan: try a poetry form that was new to us. I wrote a cento poem/patchwork poem. Research is needed when writing a cento poem that is composed entirely of lines from poems by other poets.”🎄🎅🎄Last week for Poetry Friday, I interviewed Matt Forrest Esenwine about his new book, Today I Am. If you did not visit my blog site and would like to read Matt's responses, please click here.Thanks to Shannon Krieg at POW! Kids Books for providing a copy of Matt's book for one lucky person. Congratulations Michelle Kogan. I know you are excited to receive and review the book.🎄🎅🎄I am ready for Poetry Friday but not fully ready to open the doors to all the decorated rooms in my house. It's hard to balance life during the holidays so here I am in the wee hours of morning typing away. Thanks to Cathy Mere for hosting Poetry Friday today at her blog, https://merelydaybyday.blogspot.com/. She is rolling out the red carpet for the Poetry Friday community."Happy holidays to all, and to all a good-night."
Oh, my goodness! I love this! How beautiful the photos of your decorated spaces and, how fun the cento of songs. My goodness, you put a big smile on my face and songs in my mind to hum today. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou are full of holiday cheer and brightness, Carol! Just what I needed.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Mary. I just read through several of your blog posts and could not find a link to comment. I left a comment on Twitter for you.
DeleteDear Carol, your cento-Christmas-song is lovely! And I love that skinny tree tucked beside your staircase. xo
ReplyDeleteYou have inspired my Christmas spirit, Carol, and your home looks lovely. Loved your cento including lines from the Byrds to Emily D! One of the things I like, too, about Poetry Friday is encouragement to try new forms.
ReplyDeleteCarol, thanks for the peek into your festive decorations. Like you, I love this time of year. I'm finding that being retired gives me a much more leisurely pace in my preparations. Yet, there is still much to do. How did I ever work? Hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteI love these two lines together:
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices."
Yes, hope. It's what the weary world can use right now.
Cathy, I have been thinking a great deal about retirement lately. Moving to Virginia has me working on the house and family needs full time. I often wonder how I accomplished daily living and my career before the move. I wonder how many of us educator retirees feel the same way.
DeleteI love your Cento Carol! What an intriguing form - I'm going to add it to my list of forms to try. It was fun to read it and recognize some of the lines from memory. Have fun decorating for the holidays in your new home!
ReplyDeleteI am almost at the last phase of decorating. The lighting with timers have slowed down the process. I think I will add a blog post today with photos of what I have accomplished. Stay tuned.
DeleteI'm just putting up the Christmas joy all over the house, too, Carol. I don't have as many rooms I think as you, but it is so much fun to tuck something Christmasy into every place. Your cento is a lovely one, so, so filled with music! Happy Christmas to you & yours!
ReplyDeleteLinda, I love the idea of tucking something Christmasy in every nook and cranny. My goal is to have a Christmas remembrance in every room on the first floor. My son wanted a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and that is upstairs in his great room in the loft.
DeleteThanks for the peek into your foyer and study! Is that a plaid teddy bear I see? Fun cento -- glad to see a Dylan line in the mix.
ReplyDeleteYour house looks so lovely! And what a beautiful cento, too!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ruth. Christmas joy is found in many rooms in my house. I feel so delighted to have the spirit of Christmas and the joy of Christ as the reason for the season surrounding me. Have fun decorating.
DeleteBeautiful, Carol! Your cento, your house, the season... Thank you for sharing all this loveliness.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your Christmas decorations here! I love Christmas time! We have kept up our tree year round which was fun. Now we're re-decorating it for the new year. We'll see how long it stays up.
ReplyDeleteHow fun to peek into your house and the decorations. You poem and last week, Mary Lee's inspired me to go down the cento rabbit hole.
ReplyDeleteThanks for opening your door and heart and inviting us in, and for this lovely warmth-filled post today too Carol. Beautiful Cento poem, and I love your ending line, "Wonder upon wonder" by Emily Dickinson a poet hero of mine. I enjoyed reading from the poems that grew your poem also. And many thanks for Matt's book which I'm very much looking forward to!
ReplyDeleteWhat gorgeous decorations! And your cento is all kinds of perfect! I loved checking your sources to confirm the lines I recognized and explore the ones that were new to me. You stitched the lines together perfectly!
ReplyDeleteYou are a holiday decorator extraordinaire, Carol! And I feel even more festive because of your cento. Thank you. :)
ReplyDeleteI am going to open my blog post with my next blog post with a sneak peek of my second phase of decorating, Bridget. It has been a slow going process since my husband has a fractured him.
DeleteI think you have a flair not just for writing but for decorating, too! Love the pencil tree tucked in the corner. It's as if it were built right into the room. And I very much enjoyed your clever cento.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rose. I do love to decorate and do handiwork while I am decorating the house. I wanted a pencil tree for my new home and I felt the corner in the foyer was just the right place. I am almost at the end of decorating so I will post more photos.
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