Christmas Poem and Christmas Carol

Christmas Poem

The coloured pentacles of dreams

reflecting golden in the Light

A glimmer here

and a shimmer there

It all becomes a wondrous sight:-

Perhaps it must be the spring

When the birds and angels sing-

Crystal moonbeams in the air

They sparkle and gleam from everywhere-

Magic Starlight in the Sky

Where all our dreams can ride on high-

In the Magical Christmas Sky;

And the Stars, they

twinkle and shine

Evoking memories

giving a sign,

Christmas,

New Year,

and Auld Lang Syne.

Christmas Magic,

Christmas Bells

In the Season of Good Cheer:

And of Stories we come to hear;

Christ's birth in a Stable

at Christmas Day,

a joyous occasion

with Angels singing

So bright and so clear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHkroAFnQwc

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes Sandra

wonderful sights of Christmas Lights

As Christmas is approaching I have noticed that there are some wonderful
pictures of Christmas Lights in the New Zealand Herald. 

  The link is:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=10693410&gallery_id=115202#7237473

  Best wishes of the Season,

  Sandra

a song

I have been enjoying listening to Dante's Prayer,
which seems to me to be a song for a traveller:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTLX7h54jIg

This is live at the Alhambra Palace at Granada which
is a magnificent splendour for the architecture and art.

Alhambra Palace in Granada Spain from wikipedia

  Best wishes from Sandrra

A Christmas Song

I always imagine a beautiful magical Christmas in the snow:

  The settings must be wonderful and picturesque:

In the Bleak Mid Winter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6yevmluq2M

  Best wishes from Sandra

Versailles

picture of palace in 1675 before the Hall of Mirrors was constructed from wikipedia:

I quite like this image as with the muted colours it is evocative of an earlier time
of beauty and depicts an image with the fountains playing giving a magical quality
to the setting.

Poetry Page,

Versailles

Silken furbelows of fashion

Designed on gowns of colourful creation;

The flounces, the tresses,

the elegant dresses

And a world

beribboned in lace;

The wonders and splendours of this grace-

The stories of old

These fables of gold

Laced in the frame-work

of a Labyrinthe -

Cupid with a Ball of String

Dare the Nymphs and Angels sing,

The Tales which La Fontaine would bring

into the Splendour of the Day.

And so it was

On the Shifting Sands

That Le Notre with his Geometric Plans

designed a Landscape,

wondrous and new,

parterres and hornbeam

and trees of clipped yew:

of beauteous statues

bosques and elves

the groves, the fountains and elms

Rays of sunlight shimmered through

gleaming green and gold;

I see tranquillity in other places

Between high banks where the carp and bream do flow.

Across time, there are so many spaces and places

Though the wondrous glory of an age not forgotten

lingers still.

Time plays tricks

In old-fashioned garb

and costumes of old

A once forgotten time, enlightened,

And once more,

a Dream foretold.

Destiny unfolds,

We are in the mists of time.

The broderies and grass parterres of Grand Trianon

Memories of La Maintenon

The coloured marble and temples of old.

The theme of Versailles lingers on,

A palace glimmering in the sun,

The fascination, imagination,

For travellers,

so much an inspiration.

Wondrous gardens, terraces and flowers

So bright and bold,

In colours of purple and gold.

As also at Marly, where once

was told

Of the fairies who also spun their gold;

In its frame of magnificence

the rising and setting sun

dim ochered falls over the valley

in patterns of gold and light

and to the people would give delight

at such a wondrous sight;

which gave Apollo brilliance in its beam

As showers of water streamed

Casting rainbows and prisms of colour

In sprays of mist amongst magical fountains-

Versailles, and the king,

with songs, poems and quatrains

which would give a wondrous ring.

As the Seasons do change

A pale light glimmers

And the leaves doth fall from your trees

Dappled in green and gold.

The flickering rays dance in majestic greenery

The flower scented groves

Of statues and perfumed Orangerie.

And once in a dream

with children I've seen

The Lady of Maintenon.

The beauties of Heaven will find their trace

the banquets are over

the leaves do fall

Yet, ever and after,

Your Majesty stands tall.

I think and I dream of this wondrous abode

For here is my nemesis

and the story an ode

To find life's truth

and beauty in ode

Of a labyrinthe and

grottoes of old,

The stories to be told-

Of enchantment and places to behold-

Across a magnificence of splendour

Versailles calls out its name-

The jet streams of yesterday,

given from mists of watery fountains

in gardens of riotous splendour

come calling through-

In woods, the breezes

scented with jasmine and thyme

through rustling and whispering leaves

echoing through centuries of time-

the names are weaved;-

“Marie, Marie” I'm calling to thee-

The lady in a long white gown,

And even today,

remembered still, in

Old Versailles town.

And whispering still,

The loss of Louis's crown.

From far away places

the people of many faces

All come to see the show

A squire and a knight

once came into sight

of Versailles and its splendour and light

Said one t'other (squire to the knight)

Do you not know, did sayeth of the king-

“Versailles for courtiers,

Marly for family,

Trianon was for me!”

Why for? Why for?

Versailles is no more

With a king and glorious court?

No, not at all,

The people rebelled

A king tried too late,

and fell short.

O Versailles, Versailles,

what happened to thee-

Your old world came tumbling down,

The vestiges of a time once past,

cleverly raise from the ground

with sign posts all around

and now we visit you anew.

No more are the courtiers, king and queen,

but now it is as though,

we always have been

entranced by your wondrous dream.

A royal court no more

the glittering triumphs

the spectacles all unfold

The stories, the glories

of wonders to uphold.

And so through the ages

the splendour of sages

and a place in the sun.

Composed by Sandra

Madame de Montespan (Part Two)

Image of a rose flower from daily art clip:

Images courtesy of <a href="http://www.DailyClipArt.net">DailyClipArt.net</a>

With Princess Dido,

on her wall

A hint of a glimmer of her fall?

In a halo of her dreams

Surrounded by the fairies of a mythological ball;

From the reams of her life before,

now would be her time to call;

the final whistle and curtain call;

The Reigning Star of the Court,

Days were now becoming short;

Madame de Montespan's

Time-span through,

The King would now start life anew;

In a new life would be true;

Reigned Supreme

or so it seemed

until one day she toppled her dream:

Today and yesterday and tomorrow

All her life would become a sorrow

In the wiles of life unplanned

And of Destiny it spanned

In the swings of high and low

up and down we all go;

If there ever was a time

of Fancy freedom

and Love forlorn,

Madame de Montespan now care-worn

Insecure and her fears were born;

Gathering on at a shining pace

Now it is all in grace

Refined and styled as with Lace

Coming to a final race:

Venus, the Morning Star would hail,

Madame de Maintenon would prevail;

“Oh, you enchanting flower,

Marrying the king your finest hour!”

Madame of the Ever-Now:

Madame de Montespan

in her woe

In the mimicry of a dream

In the shadows of a life once been

Reminiscing in shadows

of the past,

Reflecting on the seasons last

Spectres in the hallways hollow;

To an Abbey she would follow

Marie-Madeleine Rocheuart

Queen of Abbesses at Fontevraud;

Lost Abbey of the Plantagenets

and of kings of long ago,

Not to become as a Lancelet

Madame de Montespan on would go,

in the rounds of activity;

ever refreshing as “l'eau de vie;”

Within the realms of disparity

And the rounds of her charity

within the bounds of her servility

and goodwill in humility

and with boundless energy

travelled to Saumur

where the people would see

believing the mistress of the king was she

And La Montespan let them be;

The apple cart of dreams

turned over

in a round­about way,

fashioned from an insider tray;

now we come to the Land of Make Believe

Always happening at Lightening Speed

Gone are the whistles and care-free days

Now it is already planned

Up to Vespers and down with the stands;

visited a good friend,

her soul to mend;

Spiritual guidance her friend would lend

Was a way to the end;

Musings and mercy from a teacher,

This would be a final gesture;

gone to eventually seen instead

a love with all the beads instead;

the stories and glories in their stead;

So far from her life of culture,

stature as maitresse en titre;

Friendships, folly, etiquette,

Surreal now her life oblique:

A convent at rue Dominique;

Onwards her life must go;

Now her life would become another,

Thinking of her pious mother;

Also she did have a brother

Duc de Vivonne, a commander,

Also of Champagne a governor

Sailing for a royal endeavour,

And also for a good measure

Seeking pirates and their treasure;

did enjoy his worldly leisure

And also his other pleasures;

Beautiful Mistress not forgot,

As the flowers of forget-me-not

Pressed amongst the leaves of a book

All who glance can take a look

Amongst the leaves of a polyglot;

As the seasons do unfold

A new love for the King behold:-

Madame de Montespan in the Spring,

Madame de Maintenon, another thing,

The king would give to you a ring;

Goodly, demure, quiet, kind

Virtues La Montespan left behind;

As Queen Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour

changed their roles for ever more,

Different temperaments from before;

The courtly life was a chequered game

A roll of the dice,

gripped with vice;

As Nymphs danced upon Heaven's Stair

The Courtly games became a Villain's Lair;

Potions of Love

to ensnare;

A candle flame flickers at the tallow,

Now her life would taper in shadow;

Moonbeam Shadows

Splashed upon the King's Page

This was not as he envisaged;

The King now in a dismay

as his play had gone awry

and the court in a disarray

in a most unbecoming way:

Did he ever question why?

Magical potions

Superstitious notions

had no place in a play,

Which by now had become a-fray;

Clasping at Rainbows

in a prism of time

To unmask villains in their prime

And also to dispel the fears

Of his knights and of his peers;

Police Inspector de la Reynie

From the Paris Constabulary,

Initiated an Inquiry,

of the king's complicity

seeking out criminality;

With a Chambre Ardente,

Closing down in 1682,

Patrons numbered but a few;

and unfortunately, too

but which was also true,

The King's Inquiry was closed down

For proximity to the Crown;

And as the King

Stayed his hand

Preventing ripples

across the Land

In his way

and in his plan

He saved the day

For La Montespan;

And grants respite

In her requite;

What now could she do?

“They all wish to banish me!”

At Versailles she wished to be;

Years at court remained eleven

Duke de Maine from the age of seven

favourite of La Maintenon

Moved her goods with her along

which today seems all so wrong

And Porcelaine de Trianon

Now was all but gone;

 Madame de Montespan from wikipedia:

 Louis XIV:

Madame de Montespan is believed to be the fair lady sitting in the middle of the carriage

in this picture from wikipedia: