Margaret Fieland Reviews Christmas Poetry Chapbook

Blooming Red : Christmas Poems for the Rational
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Poetry Chapbook
ISBN 9781449948245
Buy Link: www.budurl.com/BloomingRed

Reviewed by Margaret Fieland

Looking for a holiday stocking stuffer? Want something to read aloud at holiday dinners, something the whole family can enjoy? Then treat yourself to is delightful collection by poetic collaborators Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball.This is a delightful little volume, 58 pages consisting of thirteen poems by each poet. I love reading poetry aloud, and this volume is full of delight. A couple of favorites:
Christmas Magic Wrought by Google's Keyword Elves by Carolyn Howard-Johnson.
begins with:

At the stroke of dawn on November first
gremlins tired from their Halloween

and ends with:


That's when Google's
keyword elves gave me the gift of all

Christmas gifts. It's called
the make-dinner-reservations

-at-McCormick-and-Schmick
system of revenge.

You're sure to recognize yourself in this holiday tale of woe. The poor narrator is having a hard time at the holidays.. Ants attack her turkey, the oven thermometers are on the fritz and the Kitchen Aid has died just as its warranty runs out. And are more disasters to come. I laughed but, like the narrator, we, too, have contemplated just chucking the whole thing and going out to a restaurant.


And another, this one by Magdalena Ball - fond memories, Six Million Years Ago, when we were kids:


Six million years ago
when we were just kids
upright in thin desert air
bi-pedaling in anticipation
of holiday seasons yet to come.
Time was different then.

and ends:

the first law of thermodynamics
what cannot be created or destroyed
your burning
youthful
matter.

Do yourself a favor, and create some memories of your own by buying this book and then sharing it with the whole family over the holidays.

About the reviewer:Born and raised in New York City, Margaret Fieland has been around art and music all her life. She is an avid science fiction fan, and selected Robert A. Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky for her tenth birthday, now long past. In spite of making her living as a computer software engineer, she turned to one of her sons to format the initial version of her website, a clear illustration of the computer generation gap. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Melusine, Front Range Review, and All Rights Reserved. Her book, The Angry Little Boy, will be published by 4RV Publishing, LLC, in early 2013. You may visit her website, http://www.margaretfieland.com.




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