Holidays Amaze

Holidays Amaze has poems focused on our amazing holidays and celebrations, such as New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, weddings, and graduations. The diverse poems in this book include maze poems, prayer poems, shaped poems, sonnets, and narratives. The poems that are formatted as mazes, in additional to the ones that use maze symbolism, make Holidays Amaze an amazing collection of poems to be read, especially on holidays.
The poems in Holidays Amaze use multimodal elements to show the amazing aspects of some of our many holidays and celebrations. The maze poems, shaped poems, photos, metaphors, and icons add to the visual content of the poetry. The use of rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and other sound elements add to the aural content.
The poems in Holidays Amaze have suspenseful holiday action, Christian content, historic elements, dream/reality sections, and interactions with family, friends, and animals. Successful and positive activities are seen with resolutions on New Year’s Day, unblocked writer’s block, reduction of anxiety, increased patience while waiting in line, and other actions.
“A May Flower in November 1620” is one of the short poems in Holidays Amaze. “Waiting in Advent” is an excerpt from one of the long narrative poems in this book about amazing holidays.

A May Flower in November 1620
The flowers of May were blooming away
in summer’s great warmth and fall’s wintry air.
A petal broke off, went sailing astray,
into the wind, with a Separatist’s prayer.

It paused in the sky with the blue turning gray;
then continued its trip ‘til wooden beams were near.
When one of them cracked, the petal did say:
“I fear for my life! This storm’s so unfair!”

“But I know, in this world, many are things unfixed.”

“‘cause I trust in my Lord, to Him I’ll pray.”
With prayers and repairs, the beam was soon fixed.
“I thank thee, Lord, for strengthening my ’May.’”
The voyage moved on; many problems eclipsed.
In November within a New World’s bay,
the flower became Mayflower in-mixed.

Waiting in Advent
Crowded impatient feet are waiting at the sale
with toes fidgeting restlessly upon the trail
of Christmas shoppers crammed within a lengthy line
to purchase gifts in person, rather than online.

Near the end of the shopping line, four people stand
and talk about their Christmas gifts that have been planned.
One of the four people smiles and says, “We should stand
here longer before getting into that line, and
we should be sure we have all the gifts that we’ve planned
to buy.” Other shoppers listen and understand
the four people are brethren who’ve been shopping and
finding presents that are now in each tired hand.

While staring strong at words beneath
a sign about an advent wreath,
one of the siblings points to the sign
and says, “That name of ‘Hope’ is mine,”
and I hope our presents will be
great enough for our parents’ glee.”

One of Hope’s brothers points to the words
about Advent candles and says, “See,
‘Love’ is my favorite of those words,
so that’s what my name always will be.”

Next in the brethren’s horizontal line
is another sister; she’s wearing pink
and says, “If you want to know what I think,
then ‘Joy’ is the name that’s joyfully mine.”

Hope and Love both notice and love the joyful style
of Joy’s hair as it curls and curls close to her smile.
All three of these family members then look down
at the fourth member’s feet resting upon the ground.

The fourth member is wearing a purple shoe
on one foot. His other shoe’s the color blue.
He stares at his shoes and says, “I’m wearing two
different shoes because, this morning, I knew
the season of Advent was starting anew.
In some churches, the purple candles are blue.
Right now, my name’s ‘Peace,’ whether purple or blue.”

Hope says, “The candle and lighting
differences aren’t dividing
worshippers, who are all enticed
by the birthday of Jesus Christ.”

Peace says, “You’re absolutely right about that.
Religious freedom’s a great welcoming mat.
Jesus enters many different homes at
times when worshippers are kneeling on each mat.”

“Details in many groups at times
will differ. For instance, our rhymes
aren’t exactly the same; each is
unique for each of us,” Hope says.

“You’re so right about differences.
In our scheduled shopping times and dates,
all of us had our preferences,
especially for today,” Love states.

“Rhyming diversity can build a smile,”
Joy says, smiles, and adds, “I’m so thankful for
this shopping trip. We agreed to explore
this store and then to meet in this same aisle.”

Love gives Joy a hug and says, “I know.
We have our similarities and
our differences. Even so, I glow
to attend events that we have planned.”

Peace says, “I’m also so glad to be shopping,
but we should now be moving and not stopping.
here. We’re near the end of a line and blocking
shoppers, who are turning and backwards walking.”

Before the four begin to move, a stranger bumps
into the arm of Peace. Peace’s coffee cup jumps
out of his hand, splashes onto his corduroy
jeans, and spills across the boots of Hope, Love, and Joy.