ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

This is a true story of a friend whose three year old son was terrified of Rudolph. It was one of my earliest poems - about number 8. I have worked on it a bit to improve the metre and although I know there is a glitch or two I don't want to change the essence of it. Amazing how much easier it was to amend it than when I wrote it - a year's experience and practice has made a huge difference. It is still a favourite.

Just lovely Heather!

Trish

Good one Heather any thing to do with kids and Christmas has got my vote.
But don’t show it to Keats just in case.

TTFN

Geese Heather,

My glasses have all fogged up. Or are there tears in the eyes that make the glasses look foggy. The latter, I think. There isn't very much wrong with the sentiment in this poem. I didn't notice any major glitches. It felt like a smooth ride to me and not a reindeer in sight.

My Niece (who is now a Mum herself) used to say when she was three, "No like 'HoHo'". She had decided 'HoHo' was Santas name and wouldn't say 'Santa'. By the time Christmas rolled around again she had gotten over her fear in favour of more presents.

Thank you Trisha, Dave and Zondrae. I thought it was a lovely story. I'd never heard of a child being scared of Rudolph before.

Heather

I didn't notice any glitches Heather, reads fine to me.

I've never heard of a child being afraid of Rudolph before either, Santa now, that's a whole different kettle of fish. He is one scary dude. This is a really cute little story, well written too.

Thanks Leonie. I'll fess up. The glitch is in the first line of the second stanza. Reindeer where the last syllable should be stressed. My dictionary says the Rein is the stressed part of the word.

I have photos of my eldest daughter when nearly 2 on Santa's knee screaming (& believe me she could scream) her head off in absolute terror.

Heather

Awwww...Heather this is lovely & agree with Dave, any poem involving Christmas & kids is a beauty.

& it is!!

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle, now that you've pointed it out I can see it too. That is why I will never be completely au fait with meter because it read perfectly ok to me before you pointed it out. I'd never pass the judges' certificate either.

Adam could tell a funny story about me shooting off my mouth in a similar circumstance. I had been going on about being a bit of rhyme snob. I hate rhyming plurals and singulars, past and present tense, etc, and was saying that sloppy rhyming always jumps out at me. Anyway he sent me a poem he had written that had the rhyming pattern abab, all except the last stanza where the pattern changed to abcb. He even went so far as to say that he wasn't sure the last stanza worked and I assured him it did, didn't even notice the non rhyme.

Beautiful poem, Heather.
I must admit, I haven't heard of a child being scared of Rudolph either! But it's amazing what fills a child's mind, isn't it?

Catchya
IRene