HANGING AROUND IN THE BACK ALLEYS
Ears and eyes and taproots and wooly tails,
claws and toes and staffs and shiny scales,
crawling and skittering and skipping and leaping,
scattering all over to proclaim love new reaping.
Unbounded hearts, unbounded parts making a whole
new band of followers and finders in a new role,
each clutching the other, each searching who to tell
out there, back there, over there in all Bethlehem’s ways.
Bumping into grumping shopkeeper,
slumping into dumping stall reaper,
tripping over soldier gear left at door,
skipping over kitchen slops slung in pour.
Friends now in single-minded mission mild
To beam out into all around the love from that Child
His nod, His commissioning smile, His go-and-tell eyes,
To jiggle and jostle and wiggle and wostle His love to the skies.
granbee 
Dec 28, 2011 @ 05:51:42
Such a playful sounding poem yet with such a meaningful point, very lovely!
Dec 28, 2011 @ 06:06:05
So glad you caught the playfulness. I wanted to establish that as part of our groups of friends’ initial attitude, before some dark stuff and difficulties set in. Thank you SO MUCH for your encouragement. This project means so much to me. I truly need you guys feedback. Always appreciate the utter mastery of your poems.
Dec 28, 2011 @ 06:04:01
Busy busy!
Dec 28, 2011 @ 06:06:54
Yes, our critter and unfolks and regular Bethlehem “expected ones” are getting busier and busier as they go out and tell!
Dec 28, 2011 @ 06:28:08
Granbee, I love the line, “unbounded parts making a whole” – and that IS indeed what this season is all about. 🙂 I love it that you include earth’s creatures in this series of holy-day poems!
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:02:23
Betty, so pleased you love God’s creatures’ presence. I could never write otherwise!! You DO know that the critters, due to their reliance on instinct, are often very much closer to their Creator than we humans are! This is a large part of why meditation, deep meditation, is so effective in developing our spiritual lives.
Dec 28, 2011 @ 06:38:04
Lovely piece bere Granbee
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:03:29
Poeticj, anytime I can bring loveliness into your life is a blessed moment for me! So glad you enjoyed. Praying for you and loving you and your wonderfully creative spirit!
Dec 28, 2011 @ 08:01:27
Reading this makes me want to pull out a thesaurus and start using better words in my own writing. And all that to say “Great poem” :), I really enjoyed it.
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:05:02
Awwwww–coffeeshop, ya caught me! I am such an incurable wordbuff. I just hope and pray that my chosen words, and the vocabulary of my “critters” still conveys a message to you. Have a most joyful and light and love-filled entryway into 2012, okay?
Dec 28, 2011 @ 08:35:44
Rose! Wonderful contrast between your title: ‘Hanging Around in the Back Alleys’ and your last line. I’ve spent my fair share hanging around the back alleys, but never with such purpose.
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:06:17
Peter, I KNEW would “get it”!! Can always count on you. And, to tell you the truth, I WAS thinking of you (and a few other “critters!”) when I chose this title. The road less traveled, you know?
Dec 28, 2011 @ 09:25:28
I love “unbounded hearts”, and “His commissioning smile, His go-and-tell eyes”–especially that last, quite “genius”!
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:07:11
Caddo, He’s looking at YOU, girl, just like that, and smiling and sighing with satisfaction!
Dec 28, 2011 @ 17:18:44
”Friends now in single-minded mission mild To beam out into all around the love from that Child His nod, His commissioning smile, His go-and-tell eyes,To jiggle and jostle and wiggle and wostle His love to the skies.” – this part led me to cheerful smiles 🙂 Thanks for posting again.. And again, I’m up for the next 😀
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:09:32
Joyce, so pleased you plugged into those lines, for they brought a joyful heart to me as I wrote them! I am slowing down just a tiny bit with the posting this week and through Epiphany (01/06/2012). But I am definitely continuing,as He leads me and as I follow to the best of my frail ability, being just a “sort-of folk”!
Dec 28, 2011 @ 19:31:09
Granbee,
I just love your style!
I love the way you bring nature into your work and the rhythm in this one makes it flow like a piece of silk in a breeze!!
Christine
xx
PS I’ve only been absent from here for a week because of Christmas. Unfortunately my one finger typing is for ever now that the MS has weakened my right hand leaving it completely redundant! I type with my left hand now but can’t seem to master using more than one finger, though I am getting quite efficient with it!! So please excuse any typosd!! (Like that one!!) LOL 🙂
xxxxx
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:11:16
Oh, journey, I am praying for your right hand RIGHT NOW! You are such a wonderfully brave and joyful example to us all! Your typing is just fine with me. I love you and the light of your life lived before us!
Dec 28, 2011 @ 21:54:19
We are indeed all One Granbee.. each of us playing our parts all connected all embraced in that love, That Oneness, no creature too great or small… Only Man whom at times seems to know better and yet he knows nothing at all..
I hope that your Christmas was a relaxing one.. with lots of Fun and love around.. Mine was just one of the best Ive had in a while.. My one year old grandaughter made it for me.. We laughed and sang and let those electronic gadgets alone.. walking, and making each day last with smiles and memories.. Now who could ask for more..
May your days be Bright and Merry still Granbee, and May your 2012 be full of love and happiness.. a special Hug dear one, who is wiser than the owl.. .. Long my your Blog hoot and twitter ,, 🙂 a friend.. who still dreams.. x
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:13:25
Oh, Sue, I can just see you with that beautiful little granddaughter right now! Yes, I had a very special Christmas, with a lot of love, lots of improved positive connections with family and friends, and lots of joy with animals and nature. Bless you as we all toot along together towards our very own Epiphanies!
Dec 29, 2011 @ 02:19:43
A jovial and playful take on the tale of Bethlehem. You, my dear, are the contemporary Mother Goose. Shall we call you Mother Granbee?
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:14:52
Tots, my girl, you may call me anything you please, just “call me”(as in continuing to comment on my posts and continue your own wonderful blog!). Mother Granbee–I TRULY like that and will insist upon it with my publisher next fall!
Jan 01, 2012 @ 02:39:03
Do keep us posted on the publication(s). Fall is wrapped around the corner. 🙂
Jan 01, 2012 @ 02:54:37
Tots, how you honor me, wanting to keep up with future publication(s) of mine! I will start SUBMITTING no later than Labor Day. Meanwhile, I am working a lot of angles, a LOT of angles, that should impress publishers/magazines/journals as I drain myself daily with this adult fairytale/allegory project. You are great to be interested so consistently! May your 2012 be filled with light and love and laughter and peace, dear, dear Tots~~~
Dec 29, 2011 @ 07:30:26
I nominated you for the versatile blogger award. If you want more info, check out my blog. I should have a post soon explaining it.
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:17:19
Thank you most humbly, coffeeshop! As some of our fellow bloggers already know, I am totally horrible at following through on these blogger award checklists! I am SO DEEP into this allegorical fairytale for all ages project that I have not one ounce of mental capacity left over right now. I am deeply appreciative of this very real honor you have bestowed upon me, however. May your entry into 2012 be blazing with light and love!
Dec 29, 2011 @ 19:07:56
A very panful and cute post… A modern day story teller that lights up the child in every adult!
Dec 30, 2011 @ 02:18:11
We MUST come to HIM as little children, Savy. If I am facilitating you in this metamorphoses, THANKS BE TO GOD!
Dec 30, 2011 @ 03:33:25
Random observation on format… I don’t know why, but it’s somehow easier to read and process when (like this) it’s not in caps. Maybe that’s just a personal quirk (I know I’m full of them)! Love this 🙂
Dec 30, 2011 @ 04:34:14
Kana, I am one of those ol-fashioned writers who never needed to worry about formats–the printers and publishers took care of all that. Please excuse. Sometimes I catch myself putting stuff in caps because many of my in-laws (hint,hint) find that easier to read because they are always losing their reading glasses! And don’t you agree that one’s in-laws should be always encouraged to read one’s wisdom (tee, hee)! So glad to have you visit and comment here. I know how busy you are–don’t know how you manage it all!
Dec 30, 2011 @ 10:39:29
What a wonderful, wondrous, grumbly, dancing, slumping back alley of a poem! I have not been visiting here nearly often enough. You lit up my evening.
Dec 31, 2011 @ 02:18:08
Thomas, welcome to granbee’s blog! I really must find you and follow you! So pleased you experienced such wonder in my “back alley”!
Dec 30, 2011 @ 20:41:32
i love the flow of this poem of yours! and what i love most about it is the way that rhymes used don’t fit a standard pattern and don’t choke the flow of it. beautiful 🙂
Dec 31, 2011 @ 02:14:39
Wow, Lili, thanks!! I am so encouraged by your careful feedback here. I have been working on my rhythms and am glad the flow is not “choked” for you! I always appreciate your feedback when you have time. I LOVE your poems!
Dec 30, 2011 @ 23:52:24
What a great seasonal poem — leveraging the importance (maybe necessity) of the importance of the animals in the manger scene. Such creatures capture (and represent) an innocence that humans cannot. We are there caretakers and humans actually understanding and acting on the message of love is their only salvation in these modern times.
Dec 31, 2011 @ 02:17:03
Thank you so much, zum, for “getting” it! Yes, the animals with their instincts untainted by calculation and “wishing”, seem to me to be more directly connecting to the channels where their Creator’s love flows to them.
Dec 31, 2011 @ 04:11:46
Congratulations, I’ve nominated you for the Kreativ Blogger award: http://miropoetry.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/warrior-trophies/
Dec 31, 2011 @ 04:18:24
Thank you so very much, warrior poet. As you probably already know, I am horrible at following through with the to-do list attached to these blogging awards. Just know that this particular nomination could NOT have been given me by a blogger I admire more. I LOVE it every time you say anything about us all being fellow warriors with you!
Dec 31, 2011 @ 04:42:16
I just loved this and will go back and catch up with the posts I’ve missed. Such colorful images came to mind as I read your words. This could be an awesome illustrated book for children but one that adults would love as well. God bless you!
Dec 31, 2011 @ 04:44:22
So grateful for your encouragement, especially this week when it is a bit of a challenge to “get back on the horse” after all the Christmas family and community and church activities, with New Year’s weekend and my birthday still ahead! I am inspired,fromtheheart! Thank you for dropping in here. The book is starting to dance in front of my eyes again.
Dec 31, 2011 @ 06:50:29
Thanks for your visits to my blog – I’ve recently returned to blogging and will be checking your blog out in the not too distant future! 😉
Have a great day!
Chloe xx
Jan 01, 2012 @ 01:35:49
Welcome aboard, blossoms! Love your gravatar–raised my children in Macon, GA, which has a Cherry Blossom Festival second only to Tokyo’s in number of visitors,etc. I will eagerly anticipate great feedback from you on future posts at my blog! May you have a light and love filled 2012!
Dec 31, 2011 @ 21:13:08
Love the critter-perspective of that wondrous night! I always suspect animals know more about some things than we do….especially cats. 🙂 Happy New Year!
Jan 01, 2012 @ 01:40:02
Critters are definitely wiser than we are on direct communications with their Creator! You are right about cats: my Fluffy bosses my dogs with a simple look in the eye! So pleased you enjoyed this tale–please stay tuned, as I am posting again today to follow up on posts pre-Christmas and on 12/27/2011 to continue with the critters and the “sort-of folks” , as they encounter other residents of Bethlehem,etc. These posts are being incorporated and expanded to compose an adult fairytale book! I will appreciate any and all feedback you care to provide.
Dec 31, 2011 @ 22:11:40
I especially love that next to the last phrase, “his go-and-tell eyes”. Perfect.
Jan 01, 2012 @ 01:41:30
Welcome back to my blog, Carroll! Yes, I felt blessed when that last phrase rose up in my conciousness, as well! You DO know where all this inspiration comes from, of course.
Jan 04, 2012 @ 22:53:39
Yes, I do. The one source of all things.
Jan 01, 2012 @ 03:09:55
Love this post Christmas vision, Granbee. Right up to that uniquely reverent last line!
Jan 01, 2012 @ 03:17:50
Bardess, so pleased you experienced the critters’ reverence in that last line. If only we humans could truly FEEL this reverence as purely as the critters!
Jan 01, 2012 @ 21:37:59
It’s a bit difficult for me to understand correctly what you say because of my English skill but I can feel what you imagine and mean. Lovely and peaceful. 🙂
Jan 02, 2012 @ 07:47:17
coco, you received this poem exactly in the way I hoped people would receive it: you FELT it! You very wisely allowed your God-given intuition, your soul, to interpret for you! This is what is almost required with most of my posts in this series!
Jan 03, 2012 @ 21:38:28
I believe I have asked you this but are you related to Mark Twain? I just re-read this tale and I enjoy the playfulness of your writing. (~_~)
Jan 04, 2012 @ 06:16:46
Art, I am related to the “little people” in Wales, hiding the sacred scriptures from those rude Vikings and Saxons and other heath-ern types, don’t you know? My maternal grandmother invented entire vocabularies, passed on to her only grand-daughter. Blame the DNA and long,hot Mississippi summers resting from the cotton fields, okay?
Jan 10, 2012 @ 07:30:13
Loved it. I’ll be back! milt
Jan 10, 2012 @ 07:32:23
Glad to have you here, Milt. Look forward to more visits. Be well, Be blessed, Walk in light always!
Jan 15, 2012 @ 03:55:45
Granbee, I love the rumbling, rambling song of this as well as the deeper meaning. There is never a dull moment in any of your water tumbling down the mountain poetry.
Jan 16, 2012 @ 12:54:44
Thank you so much, Thomas. I do aspire to “swing” you along, humming and swaying to yourself, as you travel with us on these poetic journeys. “A spoonful of honey makes the medicine go down”: remember that one from the Sound of Music? And keep traveling with us: there will be more tumbles and more challenging mountains ahead.