Lyrics

This is just a fun blog to share some of my favorite Christmastime songs with you and to get you thinking about lyrics and how they can bring meaning to music.  Song lyrics are like poems, and songs are a marriage of words and music, two of my most favorite things. 

The lyrics of Christmas and holiday songs are special.  From the spiritual to the fun loving, all of them evoke certain images and feelings in anyone.  Even those who aren’t religious/spiritual, enjoy these songs because they resonate with joy, fun, love and hope. 

I have a lot of favorite Christmas carols and songs.  Some are favorites because of childhood memories.  Others are favorites for personal or spiritual reasons. 

A Christmas Carol favorite is Away in a Manger.  As a small child I loved that there was a lullaby for Jesus.  I remember singing it to my dolls at Christmas when I got ready for bed.

My parents had a number of albums of Christmas from different countries.  From the Christmas in England album I learned that there was another melody for Away in a Manger. This alternate melody has become my favorite.  The lyric remains the same.

Away in a manger no crib for a bed

The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.

The stars in the sky looked down where he lay

The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes

But little Lord Jesus no crying He makes.

I love thee Lord Jesus look down from the sky

And stay by my cradle ‘til morning is nigh.

Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care

And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.

What tremendous memories a song and its lyric can retrieve from hidden secrets that lie deep within each of us.  I find myself singing this song when I feel stressed or out of touch with my spiritual self.  There is a calm that comes from placing yourself  as a child at the feet of ones God.

My favorite Christmas fun song is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  This is the first holiday special I remember watching on television when I was little back in the 60’s. 

Nowadays, I love to sing this song with my daughter.  We’ve been signing it since she was tiny.  We always start by singing out the names of the reindeer, that’s her favorite part.

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen

Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.

But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Had a very shiny nose

And if you ever saw it

You would even say it glowed.

All of the other reindeer

Used to laugh and call him names

They never let poor Rudolph

Join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve

Santa came to say,

“Rudolph with your nose so bright

Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

Then how the reindeer loved him

As they shouted out with glee,

“Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

You’ll go down in history.”

Who doesn’t enjoy this simple story?  It’s one of many songs that were turned into television specials for children.  Some others include Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  These started out as fun children’s songs for the holiday and became endearing, long lasting holiday television shows.  If not for the gifted lyricists, these songs would never have been made into shows. 

Do you have a favorite holiday song, poem or story?  Do you return to that favorite every year to bring the memories, feelings and images back as part of your celebration?

Feel free to share with me in the comments.  I’d love to hear about your favorites.  Happy holidays!  Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah!  Happy Kwanzaa!  And a pleasant greeting to all who celebrate in any way at this time of year!

Here Comes Christmas Again!

Well, we're in the midst of the holidays again and I dare say we shall survive.  I know I will despite still looking for a permanent job, doing more than one volunteer internship as a grant writer, keeping up with my daughter and trying to do some creative writing too.  Unfortunately, try is all I've done on the creative front lately.  

I did participate in NaNoWriMo last month and successfully wrote over 50,000 words towards a book.  NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it was fun but hard work.  I was writing my memoir which is not a usual novel type for NaNo, they prefer that you write fiction.  I was able to participate and win in any case.  Now I have a great start for a project I had wanted to work on for a few years.

As for other creative writing outlets, there have been none lately.  I don't regret that I have been doing grant work and the memoir, but I do miss putting a poem on paper though.  

Despite my lack of poetic creation of late, I do have a holiday poem to share along with the picture that inspired it.  

Our Tree

By Kimberly L. McClune

December 6, 2011

Tall, proud and elegant

Showing its best side

Twinkling, reflecting majesty

An elegant representation

Hours of preparation are forgotten

Lingering on a pillow

Stretched out by a fire

Admiration abounds

Up high, near the top

She looks out across her domain

Peaceful and loving she watches

Holding fast all dreams

All wishes

Beneath the lowest bows

Colorful packages scattered

Bows and ribbons peek out

Small ones teeter on the edge

Large ones impose

From the lawn a gentle glow

Escapes the bare panes

Beckoning all to view

Graceful glinting colors

Lights shining brightly

Never has there been such a one as this

Last year seems ages away

Next year seems it will never come

Only now, only this year

Is our tree the best.

This poem, and even this picture, bring to mind memories and images of Christmases and Christmas trees in my past.  I've decorated both real and artificial trees over the years, some large, some small.  It's never mattered to me what type of tree I adorned with lights, ornaments and tinsel, it only mattered that I was joyful in doing so.  Of course, the decoration of a tree must be accompanied by not only music, but the presence of family and/or friends to make the experience complete.  I don't believe that a tree can be properly decorated by just one person.  At least, that's my experience.  The more the merrier!!!

So as you do your traditional things for the holidays this year, make sure to enjoy everything.  If you find things getting boring or you feel its no fun anymore, change things up and make them fun.  No matter what holiday you celebrate at this time of year, take the time to embrace the joy that it brings for you.  Also, embrace your friends and family and remind them just how much they mean to you.

Happy Holidays!

Summer Break

So, my daughter is on summer break and we are trying to have a somewhat scheduled day of activities together. We both love to read and write, both journal and creative writing.  We also both want to exercise together over the summer so we will swim this afternoon and are walking the other days of the week.

I'm hoping to get more than journal writing done with her.  She has great ideas for stories and has written some very nice little plays in the past.  I think it would be fun to write poems together.  She is better at rhyming than I am, in fact, I purchased a rhyming dictionary recently.

So along with my job hunting and working for my friends small business, I am going to be doing some fun things with my girl that will hopefully produce more poems in the near future.  After all, someday I may have enough to feel I can publish a small book of my work.

So leave you, my readers, with some poetic thoughts from a day not to long in the past when I took a walk along a small canal near our little cottage of a home.

'The sky, blue and clear,
Rimmed with clouds fluffy, white,
Sparse, scattered Spring clouds
Cling to the horizon daring not to venture
To the center of the heavenly azure dome.'

Enjoy the remains of the season and prepare for the increased warmth of the next my friends.