Thought Theater

Merry Mary genre: Rhyme-N-Reason

The category "Rhyme-N-Reason" is intended to be a place to share poetry that stimulates thoughtful reflection. For me, writing poetry is cathartic. It's a way to encapsulate a group of feelings or thoughts that might be on my mind such that when I'm done writing, I experience a level of resolve that is both comforting and motivational. It has the same effect for me as listening to a song with which one has a significant connection. It takes you somewhere you've been or to something you've felt or experienced and allows you to further interpret the intended meaning or the lesson learned. Hopefully this can be a place for readers to pause and reflect on their own thoughts and feelings. Your comments are welcomed as well as any poetry you might want to share.

The first entry is a poem I wrote called Merry Mary. I've written about Holidays before and I think this poem is about another aspect of Holidays that has always captured my attention. It seems particularly around Christmas that I notice so many unhappy and lonely faces. You see them in the car next to you at a stoplight or in line at the grocery or department store. I used to try to ignore what it made me think and feel but I recently decided to embrace and explore it further. So much effort goes into Christmas that it seems to become synonymous with the expression - the anticipation exceeds the actual event.

The effort and the pressure to make one day so meaningful seems to discount the days spent toiling to get there. It never seems like a reasonable trade off and I'm convinced it's what I see on the faces of so many. Our preoccupation with big events like Christmas, the Super Bowl, Valentines Day, Mothers and Fathers Day, and so on diminishes the value of the 'any old day'...those many nondescript days when a phone call or an email might be exactly what one needs but its not given or received because we no longer seem to find time to celebrate those we know and care about except during the big events...if at all. Merry Mary is about someone in need of one of those phone calls.

Merry Mary

Hey Mary its Christmas night
Not gonna make it, are you alright?
Let’s get together, I have your gift
Can’t wait to see you, you’re really missed

Nutmeg drinks and soda pop leaves
An ornament hangs upon the tree

Pass the glass of bubbly potion
The redeye flight to her emotions

Chinese lanterns light the mantle
Hollow days make tabloid scandals

Hey Mary its Christmas night
Not gonna make it, are you alright?
Let’s get together, I have your gift
Can’t wait to see you, you’re really missed

Wet the ice and roll it twice
Candy canes are sweet tonight

Empty juice cans fill the aisles
The auto pilot pushed the miles

Smokey water and blackened ash
Find your floater before the crash

Hey Mary its Christmas night
Not gonna make it, are you alright?
Let’s get together, I have your gift
Can’t wait to see you, you’re really missed

Push some snowballs in the snow
Snowman’s eyes are made of stone

Shoot the eight ball, solids or stripes
Fasten your seatbelts, its time for flight

Another one way trip, it’s such a downer
No fog on the mirror when they found her

Hey Mary its Christmas night
Not gonna make it, are you alright?
Let’s get together, I have your gift
Can’t wait to see you, you’re really missed

Maybe New Years, let’s make it happen?
Drinks and dinner, lots of laughing

Mary won’t be coming, her party’s over now
Mary’s Christmas cheer, hung on a heavy bow