Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the houses

The people were hunched over keyboards and mouses

The posts were all hung on the blog with great care

In hopes that the readers soon would be there

Alas though, the mainstream were following threads

From sugar-plum bloggers who danced in their heads

And they in their sweetness, and I in the gap

Encouraging Truth to wake from its nap

When out in the world there arose such a clatter

I sprang from my (twenty-four inch, LED, high def, ultra thin, backlit, wide-) screen to see what was the matter

Away to the Starbucks I flew like a flash

Tore open my latte with style and panache

The steam on the crest of the new espresso

Gave the lustre of mystery to coffee below

When what to my wandering mind should appear

But a small happy thought, and a spot of good cheer

With a little conniving so subtle and slick

I knew in a moment it must be a trick

More rapid than eagles conflicting thoughts came

I nursed them and cursed them and called them by name

Compassion and Anger! Now Patience! Regret!

On Goodness! On Justice! On Worry and Fret!

To determine their meaning! To understand all!

Now clash away! Clash away! Victors stand tall!

As dry heaves that after wild excesses fly

When met with an obstacle; denounce and decry

So up t'wards perfection, the discourse it flew

With new thoughts full of joys and uncertainties too

And then in an inkling, I'd heard quite enough

This prancing and pawing was nothing but fluff

As I drew in a breath and was turning around

Some Happiness lost became Happiness found

It was dressed all in 'Light' from its head to its foot

Yet its clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot

A bundle of joys it had flung on its back

And it looked like a swindler just opening its pack

My eyes -- how they twinkled! My dimples how merry!

My cheeks were like roses, my nose like a cherry!

My droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow

... My mind itched with a thought that it would not let go

This stump of a thought that my mind did bequeath

And this dawning encircled my head like a wreath

It had a broad face and some depth in its belly

This insight, it shook me; my knees felt like jelly

A chubby, plump thought, best not left on a shelf

And I laughed when I thought it, in spite of myself

I think what we want is for Dark to have fled

But it's ashes and soot - there's nothing to dread

The Dark's often mute; just there doing its work

Yet seems that it's stalking, and acting the jerk

It decreases Happiness, everyone knows

Yet Happiness nods and still smells like a rose

So spring from your keyboards, and give Life a whistle

And away worries fly like the down on a thistle

And now I'll exclaim as I write out of sight

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT