Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.

Guidelines for submission:

  1. List Splintered Glass prompt which inspired the work in the text of your email.
  2. Submit material to be published as Microsoft Word document. Submission should not be longer than one page. Editing will not be provided, please be careful.
  3. Include two brief sentences about the author. Example: Michael Whozits is the author of A Book and The Curl, a blog. He is a retired pilot and avid surfer.
  4. Submission must arrive no later than the 3rd Wednesday of the month in which the Splintered Glass prompt appeared. Only one reader’s submission will be selected for any given month.
  5. Send submission to karoxby@gmail.com.

 

  1. December has many days of remembrance. Some are moments of sadness like Pearl Harbor and others honor those suffering devastating illness.
    • What would you write in a letter to any of those touched by these days?
    • Or, perhaps you’d rather write a poem?
  2. The Winter Solstice arrives in December.
    • What does this bring to your mind? Do you celebrate?
    • Do you have a Solstice memory to share?
  3. There are several religious and semi-religious holidays in December.
    • Why not write a prayer or mediation of your own for one of these: Bodhi Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas?
    • Or, write predictions or a letter to yourself facing New Year 2026, a year ahead? What do you think that you would have to say? Or do you have advice for those facing 2025?
  4. There is more than one gift giving day this month.
    • How do you plan for gift giving? Any tips?
    • What is the best gift you ever received? Why?

If there had been no poets

The world would be a dreary place.

God knew we needed poets, so

He invented the rainbow

That would condense after each rain

Into poets for all occasions.

The crystal rainbow

Shatters into glass raindrops

Sending showers

Of iridescence

 

 

(sung to We Wish You a Merry Christmas)

We wish you a Poet’s Christmas

We wish you a Poet’s Christmas

We wish you a Poet’s Christmas

And a Poet’s New Year!

 

Oh, send us a poet scribbling

Oh, send us a poet reading

Oh, send us a poet singing

And send them right here!

 

We won’t go until we’ve seen them

We won’t go until we met them

We won’t go until we’ve heard them

Please bring them right now!

 

We wish you a Poet’s Christmas

We wish you a Poet’s Christmas

We wish you a Poet’s Christmas

And a Poet’s New Year!

 

(alternate last verse)

We’ve all heard the poet’s reading

We’ve all heard the poet’s singing

We wish you a Poet’s Christmas

And a Poet’s New Year!

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“THE FRAGILE WORD,” is a fragment found among the author’s papers. These few words came with it and are perhaps the author’s attempt to describe the nature of being a poet:

“I became a fisher of moonbeams.”

REFRACTIONS—the poetry by Robert Roxby

“POETS.” Poetry was something the author and his wife shared early on. As a young man, he had great apprecation for Walt Whitman which he shared with his then girlfriend (future wife), and later gifted her with a collection of poetry, Poets Gold, which was one of her favorites through her life. This particular poem was found in the Robert’s journal.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—works by Kathleen Roxby

“WE WISH YOU A POETS’ CHRISTMAS” is a little rewording of the famous “We Wish You a Merry Christmas, which the poet prepared for her local poet group and which she shared with them at the December reading.

 

 

 

Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.

Guidelines for submission:

  1. List Splintered Glass prompt which inspired the work in the text of your email.
  2. Submit material to be published as Microsoft Word document. Submission should not be longer than one page. Editing will not be provided, please be careful.
  3. Include two brief sentences about the author. Example: Michael Whozits is the author of A Book and The Curl, a blog. He is a retired pilot and avid surfer.
  4. Submission must arrive no later than the 3rd Wednesday of the month in which the Splintered Glass prompt appeared. Only one reader’s submission will be selected for any given month.
  5. Send submission to karoxby@gmail.com.

 

  1. December has many days of remembrance. Some are moments of sadness like Pearl Harbor and others honor those suffering devastating illness.
    • What would you write in a letter to any of those touched by these days?
    • Or, perhaps you’d rather write a poem?
  2. The Winter Solstice arrives in December.
    • What does this bring to your mind? Do you celebrate?
    • Do you have a Solstice memory to share?
  3. There are several religious and semi-religious holidays in December.
    • Why not write a prayer or mediation of your own for one of these: Bodhi Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas?
    • Or, write predictions or a letter to yourself facing New Year 2026, a year ahead? What do you think that you would have to say? Or do you have advice for those facing 2025?
  4. There is more than one gift giving day this month.
    • How do you plan for gift giving? Any tips?
    • What is the best gift you ever received? Why?

Believe it or not, I am now 87!

My body is weary; yes, that’s right.

My mind constantly denies any such age.

For some unknown reason, I’m still 39.

Most of the time, my body wins that argument.

Boy, oh boy, it sure would be nice, though,

Being 39 again, if only for a day or two.

When I see a really lovely woman go by,

I’m 39 again and almost reach to touch.

O, little dove, have you flown so far

You’ve lost the way in your lonely flight

Can you now wing back to that Star

Leaving behind the sullen night?

 

There is a wide and hopeless land

Bright though it be, beneath the sun

Dry and hot lies the lifeless sand

Waiting the return of the sweet, kind One

 

To bring the joy it sorely needs:

Christmas joy. O, little dove

With branch of olive and hope-sown seeds,

At last flower the desert with peace and love