# December Challenge: Gift



## candid petunia (Dec 1, 2014)

The prompt for this month's challenge, as chosen by Firemajic is: *Gift*

You are free to interpret the prompt in any way you wish, though of course, site rules apply. If you are unsure of the challenge rules please read the 'stickies' at the top of the board.

We are continuing to allow optional anonymity this month. You may post your entries yourself, or, if you'd like to remain anonymous, you may PM your entry to either *Chester's Daughter* or *candid petunia.* If you are posting anonymously, please indicate in your PM which board, public or workshop, you desire your entry posted on.

Kindly make sure your entry is properly formatted and error free before you submit. You have a *ten minute grace period* to edit your piece, but anything edited after that will likely see your entry excluded from the challenge. 

As usual, if you'd wish to protect your first rights, post your entry in the *workshop thread,* and post a link to it in this thread. Failure to do so runs the risk of your entry being disqualified.

Do not post comments in this thread. Any discussion related to the challenge can take place in the* Bards' Bistro.

Now that the 'like" function is again blessing us with its presence, we respectfully request that you refrain from using it until this thread has been closed and the poll has been opened.

This challenge will close on the 15th of December at 11.59 pm GMT.*


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## toddm (Dec 1, 2014)

*I was given a dream*

I was given a dream of a wondrous deer
with oak-branch antlers hoisted high;
his new leaves swung in gladsome winds
and glittered beneath the springtime sky.

He strode up to a rocky height
and viewed the world in morning light.

A green fire blazed upon the hills
bestirred by soft and whispered words
which told the tales of summer joys
that fill the hearts of singing-birds.

The sylvan realm had breadth and scope
which burgeoned bright with living hope.

But the beast grew solemn when the sun
reached its zenith-height at noon;
he shook his leaves, now touched with red,
and beheld an early-rising moon.

A coldness laced the golden wind;
he knew the day rushed to its end.

A pale fire smoldered in the west
as leaves and acorns from him fell.
A hoar-frost gathered on his coat
and he laid down in the twilight, frail.

He lowered his white and weary head,
with branches bare, and soon was dead.

I awoke with the sun ablaze in the sky
bursting anew with its joyful face;
glittering golden on many leaves
and filling the day with boundless grace.

Spring was bright, the sky was blue
and light was on the morning dew.


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## aj47 (Dec 2, 2014)

*Tests are Gifts*


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## Gumby (Dec 4, 2014)

*Resurrecting the Bone*


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## Awanita (Dec 4, 2014)

http://www.writingforums.com/threads/152554-December-Challenge-Gift


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## TKent (Dec 4, 2014)

The Gift


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## Nellie (Dec 4, 2014)

http://www.writingforums.com/threads/152554-December-Challenge-Gift?p=1801084#post1801084*Legacy*


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## Chesters Daughter (Dec 8, 2014)

*The One That Will Always Top Them All*

_If never_
_these weathered pads_
_get to tear through_
_gaily patterned paper_
_again, _
_it's fine by me._

_Department store fodder_
_meant for materialistic cattle_
_is nothing more than feed,_
_and we all know what remains_
_once it's digested._

_Abodes, autos, boats,_
_and stacks of greenbacks_
_have zero value_
_to this savvy heart,_
_which took its licks to learn_
_when and when not_
_to yearn._

_I am the grateful recipient_
_of the greatest gift of all,_
_a living, breathing son,_
_stashed somewhere safe_
_and gaining weight_
_while learning how_
_not to self-hate._

_His stalwart efforts_
_to relocate his soul_
_repeatedly thwarted_
_by He _
_who designates the dole._

_No man-made bauble_
_can outshine grace, _
_and every time I cup_
_his vibrant face_
_to gaze into eyes_
_no longer plagued_
_by a desire to die_

_the universe is mine_

_and his._

_Let those in need_
_have their presents_
_of useless fluff_

_for against all odds_
_we still have each other_
_and on our plane_
_stripped of worldly trappings_
_with or sans wrapping,_
_where the insistence to breathe_
_is the most exigent deed_

_being half of our duo_
_is much more than enough._

_I love you, Matt,_
_keep buffing that rough_
_and continue to gift me_
_with every moment_
_of your earthly presence._


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## The Defenestrator (Dec 8, 2014)

The Gift Is Me


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## Dictarium (Dec 9, 2014)

*Inevitably*

The polka dots
All flew from me
As gleefully I tore
Away all of the
Wrapping paper:
Thrown onto floor.
My gift is close
And barely hidden
Here inside this box.
But, as I’m just now
Thirty-five, inevitably: 
Socks.


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## InkwellMachine (Dec 10, 2014)

*Good Medicine is Bitter, and This is For You*

Are you afraid, 
I said,
"Are you afraid?"

It's only a thought,
It's only a fear.

Do you feel it coming
Now,
Can you feel its stare?

It's only a tremble,
It's only a tear.

Is this what you wanted
Big daddy?
Old man?

They're only black lines
on your face in the mirror.

Did you buy this yourself,
Or was it
Left in your care?

It's only the price tag
For the life you held dear.


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## John Oberon (Dec 10, 2014)

*Playing Catch*

You were nine
When I threw your first high fly.
I threw it as best I could.
I lost it in the sun,
But you didn’t.

And somehow, by the time it came down,
You became a man, and caught it.
You stood near your wife and kids
As you threw it to me.

And all my love burst inside me
As the ball smacked firmly in my glove...
All my love that was thrown to a boy,
Caught by a man,
And thrown back to me.


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## rcallaci (Dec 11, 2014)

*Mortality's Edge*

*Mortality’s Edge
*

The greatest gift that the Kosmos gives
is the limited life-spans that humans live
although their spirits live on for forever and ever
never will physical immortality define or bind them
for the leisure and malaise  of an eternal life
would only amplify Man’s strife and innate depravity

*~humanities inhumanity is a man-made calamity:
fueled by sinly deeds and wicked needs that spreads
and breeds its insidious seeds of dark desires and black-hearted
liar’s; into miasmic weeds that poisons the Tree of Life.~
*
But! Man’ is so much more than this…

_under the night sky where shooting stars and moonbeams collide; two lovers caress each other on the pristine sands of a dune swept beach. Their cries of pleasure are heard, by the gaggling seabirds, as they reach climatic ecstasy. As they lay together in the afterglow of sensual and spiritual bliss; their tears flow from the pure joy of their unbridled love as the sands are nourished by the blood and sweat of their passions. 
_
the light of pure love
sets the weeds adrift
and in their place flowers bloom

​


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## jenthepen (Dec 14, 2014)

Christmas

In early years, December’s gift
was breathless joy and snow and
treats and glittering showiness
and sweets and all the stuff
of childhood dreams.

Then school and church taught
mindfulness and said the gift
should come from us and preached
goodwill and love to all and
peace throughout the world.

And years roll on and time enough
for all the stuff of which we dreamed
and preached and taught, and yet
it seems, although the words remain the
same, it all has come to nought.

The new and strident mentor now
is on the news with views of eyes
half full of hate, half full of fear
and all we hear is send us cash
and that can be your gift.

Can money really heal the world
and mend those dreams of
boys and girls who waited then
with hopeful eyes for Santa
racing through the skies?

Or can we only stand and watch
and hope for better things to come
and only wail and cry and dream
that all the men of hate and fear 
will somehow change or die.

Like Eden’s pair, no longer blind,
it’s hard to see the gift of my
humanity when, all around,
the scenes of war and pain and fear
and poverty are raw.

The choice is stark and seems to rest 
between the best of childish
dreams and older, colder
common sense that might suggest
to us a way to change 
the signs we set in youthful  minds.

Forget the hate, forget the creeds,
Forget all faith and differences
and let them concentrate and search
in other hearts and minds, and then
maybe they’d grow to find the gift 
that life can show, and know
that All is built from One.


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## Ethan (Dec 14, 2014)

*The Last Gift*

Cursed and bound, two thousand years, upon this mortal coil,
two hundred generations gone, returned to welcome soil.
Of joy, of pain, of lives well lived, unsure of certain call,
I am compelled, by circumstance, to stand where others fall.
for like some ghost in shadows lost, I walk the line between,
alive and yet, not living, corporeal and yet unseen.
yes I have cried and pleaded, I begged on bended knee,
in penitence I served more time than they much worse than me.
Yet the only answer given was, if I would taste last breath,
that another life should take my place, and gift to me their death.
Oh that some fool, unwitting would, exchange eternal rest,
for this empty jug of long soured wine, and believe they drink the best.


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## qwertyportne (Dec 14, 2014)

*Batteries Included*

Batteries Included


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## candid petunia (Dec 15, 2014)

This challenge is now closed. Please proceed to the *voting thread *to cast your vote.


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