WELCOME TO THE PUB-VERSE

A Pub Christmas
By MystresMyna

T'was the night before Christmas and all though the Pub,
Poems were being recited as MystresMyna  served up some grub.

BillTemple1957 , with a grin, was nestled behind the bar,
As poets came in from near and far.

@MysteriousDryad greeted each with a smile,
Biding them all to sit and stay for a while.

lLytlejoe  laughter could be heard above the rest,
As he made us all feel like family, not just a guest.

Ruechari could be found, telling stories galore,
She would finish with one, and we asked for more.

The candle lit stage never went bare,
As each poet took their turn with a rhyme to share.

The laughter and cheers, went on through the night,
Then a hush fell upon the Pub, at the dawning light.

We all sat in silence, and we all took a pause,
For in though the door, walked the man himself, Santa Claus.

His bag now empty, his job now done,
Where else would he go, to have some holiday of fun?

The Pub exploded with a mighty Cheer!!
As Bill served St. Nick a frothy cold beer!!

Songs were sung and more poetry recited,
It was clear to see, that everyone was delighted.

Merriment was had all day, and into the eve,
And just before it was time for everyone to leave,

Santa took the stage, his eyes clear and bright,
"Merry Christmas Poets Pub and to all poets a good-night!"

A Visit from St. Nicholas
By Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

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Random Poetry Prompt
Write a poem for our Holiday Challenge and..
Then tag another Pub Member in the comments of your poem
and challenge them to write a holiday poem!
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2020 YEAR END AWARDS –

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR WONDERFUL NOMINATIONS!! You have made it abundantly clear how much the Pub means to you and even more so the members of the Pub!! Time is such a precious commodity, and we are so grateful that you choose to not only spend time here at the Pub but choose to participate. The winners of our 2020 Year End Awards will be announced right here in the Chatter so stay tuned!!

POET OF THE YEAR CONTEST –

Just a bit of an update, rest assured that our judges have begun their process of assessing each poem and will have their final results to us soon and we will share them with you here in next week's Chatter!!

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS –

It seems we are headed very quickly to the end of 2020, wow what a year it has been!!! We wanted to remind all of you that we do have a NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS collection and would like to invite all of you to send in a poem to be included for the year 2020. Whether it is a New Years Resolution poem or a good-bye poem to 2020 we invite all of you to join in.

HOLIDAY CHALLENGE –

We are going to be bringing you one final Challenge for the end of the year. This will be our Holiday Challenge and it will begin on November 22 and run through the end of the year. Our year in Holiday Challenge is going to be an opportunity for all Pubbers to share some HOLIDAY SPIRIT with each other. We encourage EVERYONE to join in and share as many poems as possible!! Maybe we can even fill our Holiday Book by the end of the year!!

We challenge all Pub Members to write GIFT poems to other Pub members or to the Pub in general. If you would like to tag or dedicate another member you can do so or it can remain anonymous.

1. Write a "GIFT" poem either, to another Pub member or, to the Pub in general.

2. The poem can be any style, form or length.

3. You can submit as many poems as you like but only ONE PER DAY.

4. The poem can be dedicated to a specific Pub member, please let us know who, when you submit the poem and we will tag them. ONE dedication per poem please.

POEM-A-WEEK –

We only have one week left in 2020's Poem-A-Week Challenge!! I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has participated through out the year!! We were able to fill one whole book with your poems and start a new one!! I think that is a huge accomplishment and one that deserves a standing ovation!!

Starting January 1, 2021, we will be starting the challenge over again, so anyone that would like to either continue participating or join in anew, please let us know as we will start with a new participants list. I have some new ideas to spice up the challenge for next year so I encourage everyone to join in!!

2020 Poem-a-Week Participants

Musings by aMusedAndPoetic

Sillage by -Nynaeve

Weekly Whimsy by Anneshiningstar

Twenty-twenty's Poetic Bounty by most_bay

Concours by Schwethz

The Quantum Journal by MichaelTyger

Poetry Beans by undoubtedlymine

Pieces of Me by ShaunAllan

Pastel Paean by ImperfectPsychotic04

Narrow Feelings by SoulFarAway

Beautifully Mysterious by MysteriousDyrad

Genteel Reveries of an Outrié Poetess by MystresMyna

Rhyming Feelings by EmLover123

THAT SCHEME IN OUR MINDS by user42439792 (Mina)

That Orange Energy by gemkawiraa

Void of Morsels by AbhayDavid

Ragtag Poetry by NAGAdventures

Reverie by Gadralneure

A Paintbucket of Words by nubivagant_words

Words of Yesterday by Mysterywriter_007

To be a Poet by ElizabethAndersonJr

A geek's musings... by KrishnaVashisht

Roses and Thorns By wambuinjau_

Poetic Diversity! By General_Dyer

MUSINGS.. A collection of poetry By AayZuh

melancholy soul By AtypicalJello

A Poem For Each Thought By annahmbui

Written Feelings By EyvindrAstrophel

Tell Tales By pOetbysOuL

Lingering Thoughts By Cheryl325

Peaches n Brew's By Eerierosse

Autumn By PriscillaYiadom4

Poetry Book By RhysWatts

Please stop by and check out their books, show them some Poets Pub love!

IF I MISSED ANYONE PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST!

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Poem-a-Week Prompt
Week Fifty-One Prompt
Write an acrostic poem using the words
HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
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storytellers-saloon

Busted Gulch Vol. 14 Update:

Jacob resorted to drinking once again. Sallie threatened Jacob once more and to meet her for lunch. The lady raked her nails down his face, played off as cat scratched, before he joined her for lunch. Later, Sallie kissed him in front of a crowd at the Town Hall. He went back drinking after that event and decided to do so at the waterfall. Temptation to jump over the edge of the waterfall filled his mind, but alas he couldn't do it. He couldn't bear to leave Rue and Josie at the care of Sallie so he stepped away from the ledge.

Thank you for the Busted Gulch MysteriousDryad!

A Cat Christmas
By Kit-the-obscure

Wreck the tree and blame the doggies,
Fa la la la la, la la la la,
They'll never guess it was us moggies!
Fa la la la la, la la la la,
We saw the tree it was fantastic,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la,
We pulled it down with our gymnastics!
Fa la la la la, la la la!

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Random Poetry Prompt
Write a poem about family and the holidays.
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-flash-fiction-forum

November Founder's Challenge –

We are thrilled to announce the winners of our November Founder's Challenge, please help us in Congratulating them!!

Winners of the November Founder's Challenge

1st place ... fender_bender2020

2nd place ... NephetsEnal

3rd place ... lyttlejoe

Best Stories

Breakwater ... NehpetsEnal

Fireflies .... fender_bender

A huge THANK YOU to all who participated!! As always the judges had a hard time choosing a winner!!

December Challenge –

Changes to December Challenge

The December Challenge has now become a challenge to fill out a collection of Christmas stories and stories that will warm people hearts. You are invited to re-tell your favourite Christmas story, like the Night Before Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, etc.

You can also re-write the lyrics to your favourite Christmas song.

You are also asked to recollect your favourite Christmas stories from your past or special heartwarming stories from your life.

You don't have to celebrate Christmas, to share these stories. All are invited to share and there is no limit to the number of entries you can send in.

We, at the FFF, invite all Pubbers to come to the FFF and help us fill this collection.

Merry Christmas
Bill / MD

Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
By William Shakespeare

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness everywhere!
And yet this time remov'd was summer's time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

This is the last Chatter before Christmas, so I wanted to wish you all a very Merry and Blessed week!! From everyone here at the Pub we want you all to know that you mean the world to us and count you all as family!! May the spirit of the season fill you with joy overflowing and blessings beyond measure!! Love to you ALL!!

Remember to keep those pens and keyboards flying!!

Cheers from you Mystres of Chatter
MystresMyna

P.S. – Children's Poetry Corner by BB

Write a poem about riding on Santa's sleigh.