Catherine Mellen's Blog, page 2

Jack’s Display

Tis the weekend for many people to decorate for Christmas.  Just don’t make the same mistake that Jack made

Old man Jack had a knack
For displaying Christmas lights.
Evey year, he would cheer
“Time to hang the holiday brights.”

He was excited, a bit delighted
To decorate the front yard.
Up a tree, around the chimney
For Jack, it wasn’t that hard.

Lined in rows, wrapped in bows
And some were hung on a hook.
Sounds of awe, at what they saw
When neighbors stopped to look.

He made an Elf sitting on a shelf
And Santa flying in a sleigh.
There was a star, a rusty car
And some reindeers eating hay.

Shapes and sizes, a few surprises
Jack couldn’t wait to flip the switch.
There was no spark, it remained dark
A bulb must be causing the glitch.

One by one, until he was done
Jack check which light was out.
He was sure, he checked them before
But the darkness made him have doubt.

Caused by a bug or maybe the plug
Jack’s patience was wearing thin.
He realized after, with much laughter
The lights were never plugged in.

Now so bright, he lights the night
In celebration of Christmas day.
A spectacular view for me and you
From the lights in Jack’s display.

By Catherine Mellen ♡

Bah Humbug

Yes, I even write poetry for the grumpy people.

Bah Humbug, I don’t care
Anything about this time of year.

What do you find to be so merry
Over cooked food and pies with no cherry.

Stores are stuffed like sardines in a box
Prices are slashing and clearance unlocks.

Traffic is at bumpers with horns and beeps
Everyone is restless, fighting for their keeps.

Bah Humbug, I don’t care
Anything about this time of year.

What do you find to be so joyous
Girls with dolls and boys being boyish.

Malls have Santa and pictures to take
Bargains are made and crafts to make.

Red light, green light, traffic is slow
People are exhausted, always on the go.

Bah Humbug, I don’t care
Anything about this time of year.

What do you find to be so peaceful
A world at war or a family so deceitful.

Donations are made, some still go without
Lost in a system, drowned by a drought.

Buses are packed, trains are loaded
Work, kids and laundry still unfolded.

Bah Humbug, I don’t care
Anything about this time of year.

Written by Catherine Mellen

North Pole Amazon

After Black Friday Sales and Cyber Monday Deals, the elves have surely learned a thing or two

Corey’s Walk

Can peace and love be found?

Cozy Book Nook Podcast

Tomorrow at 12 noon. (Tuesday, December 3rd/New York EST) Join Laban Toni, Mary L Schmidt and myself as we talk all things bookish with award winning authors Ross McDermott & JD Edwards. 

Live on Twitter…. I mean X ♡

Be Thankful & Stay Blessed

I was eleven years old when I ran from my ‘family’s’ home and though, I went off to spend many holidays with many different families, it wasn’t until I grew up and created my own family, that I learned, it was never about what I didn’t have. 

Whether it’s an adult who is struggling to provide for their children, a child who has lived through more than any adult could ever imagine or the many who face the holiday season without family…
The holidays can turn even the biggest smiles and warmest hearts into depression when loneliness sets in.
Be sure to smile that extra smile, help a stranger, offer a loner at a restaurant to sit with you and if you’re out shopping with kids, help them buy a small toy and let them add it to the ‘Toys For Tots’ program, run by the Marine Corps Reserve, where they collect and distribute toys to children during the holiday season; this program has been a tradition since 1947.  The gift of giving, starts from the heart.

Be Thankful with all you have, there are some that have far more, less.

Stay Blessed every day, life is a gift we get to unwrap with every breath we take.

Querying

Querying is a poem I wrote for literary agents and the writers who query them.

This poem can be found with over 70 others, neatly placed together in one book.

Only Beautiful Remains: Words of a Poet is available in ebook, paperback and Kindle Unlimited.

https://a.co/d/dafteYI
https://www.nfbpublishing.com/

Before You Go

Since 1999, the Saturday before Thanksgiving is recognized as International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day. 

Suicide is at its highest during the holidays, I wrote this poem to bring out the strength, understanding and support for the ones left behind… Before You Go

Poet’s Espresso Review

I received this colorful 100 page magazine this morning and thought it was a book I forgot I had ordered, but it’s the magazine I’m in and they sent me a free copy.  Two of my poems are in this edition, including….  Once Upon A Staircase

Once upon a staircase
A giant step I made.
Looking up to struggles
Down a waterfall cascade.

Another step is taken
A giant leap I take.
All the different stages
With every step I make.

Once upon a staircase
Another step I took.
Growing through the pages
Of a written journal book.

Inked in footprints
Left behind by stain.
If I keep going
Only a few steps remain.

Once upon a staircase
I looked up the last time.
A cascade of courage
In taking the last climb.

I took the final steps
A fear I had to face.
I finally got there
Once upon a staircase.

The other poem is Christmas Blues and though I am responsible for raising a kid who decorates for Christmas on October 31st at 11:59pm, I am not sharing any Christmas poems until the Turkey has its day Now, carry on my friends

Theory of the Holiday Season

Society leads us to believe that the theory of the holiday season is a time when family comes together.  And if even for one day, families forget all the arguments, disagreements, loss of trust or betrayal that happened throughout the year. 

No matter what, family is family, right?

Yet I have questioned that theory for over three decades.

As a kid, I lived every holiday trained in fear and shame.  As a teenager, I shared every holiday with whoever I was living with at the time.

It was being pregnant for my daughter that made me want to forget all the loss of trust and betrayal I felt from my birth-family.  I then reached out to my birth mother. 
I was twenty years old and all my friends told me it was a mistake, but I did it anyways.

At first, I was happy, not to have my birth mother in my life;  I was happy to have my siblings in my life.  For the next ten years we went through the stages of cookouts, baby showers, our kids birthdays, and sometimes, even with phone calls.

Everything was always OK as long as I didn’t speak about my childhood.  Because when I did, ‘they don’t remember’ or ‘don’t want to talk about it’ or ‘they shunned me away.’

It was the late 1990s when I stopped spending the holidays with my birth-mother (I gave her nine holidays in the 1990s, that was three more holidays than what she gave me in 1975-1980)

It was another step in my life that bothered my siblings, but made the people who knew me, who know me and who have interacted in my everyday life, it made those people proud of me.

And I was proud too.

I was always being told “She’s your mother, you HAVE to forgive and forget.”

Gosh, I rambled with that theory over and over, year after year, endless, sleepless nights of…

Crying in the shower

Crying in my car

The shame

The embarrassment

The humiliation

And the emptiness of having to explain to every new person I meet about why I don’t have a family.

An old friend from the past, a long lost relative, or another sibling added to my list of siblings I never grew up with. 

It is a feeling of being belittled when you’re only welcomed under ‘their terms’.
You know the terms where I, ‘shut up, don’t talk and stop believing everything I remember’

It was easier to stay away from my birth-family than it was to interact with them.  I was never good at being someone I am not.  So to pretend my childhood didn’t happen, just seemed like a very unfair and inhumane thing to do to someone they claimed to love.

So I distanced myself to save myself.

I also have met a lot of great people since the start of my first repressed memory and the horrifying outcome it has since revealed and will continue to do.

But I have no regrets about the broken relationship I’ve always had with my birth-family… Because if it happened to someone they loved, then they would understand.

So I believe the Theory of the Holiday Season whether it is Christmas, Easter, a family reunion or get together…

Is a time when the family we create for ourselves, get together, not because we have to but because we want to.

Peace and Blessings

Your friend, Catherine Mellen aka Irishgirl692