'Twas a Holiday Contest!

As a writer I am constantly looking for motivation and inspiration to write.  That kind of discipline can be grueling sometimes.  With a semester break from my writing class at Gotham Writer's Workshop, I somewhat feel like a college student again who does not want to do ANY work til class starts again.  Without the homework assignments and deadlines, it can be easy to "fall off the wagon".
I am determined to not let that happen. 

So, what better way to keep the keys on my laptop clicking, then to enter a Holiday Writing Contest!?

The contest is hosted by Susanna Leonard Hill (susannahill.blogspot.com) and asks participants to create their own, preferrably rhyming, version of the traditional poem, Twas The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore. 

And that's that! 

Please enjoy my submission...A Jelly Bean's Christmas by Marcie Colleen.

A Jelly Bean’s Christmas  by Marcie Colleen

‘Twas the pageant for Christmas, and all through backstage,

Every actor was nervous, no matter their age.

The donkeys were oldest and required to dance,

But their costumes were much too big in the pants.

The shepherds were ready but one broke her staff,

When the choir of angels knocked over a calf.

And I, as director, tried to stay composed

Right until the moment Rudolph lost his red nose!

But no one was more sad than Maggie McFlan,

Whose costume was not exactly as planned.

Her father just grabbed one from last Halloween.

So Maggie was dressed as a large jelly bean.

Now everyone knows jelly beans come in spring,

Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, that sort of thing.

Worst yet was the fact that the jelly bean was

Three sizes too small and caused quite a buzz.

Maggie was stuffed in the tiny legume.

She couldn’t walk, she couldn’t dance with little legroom.

But with a deep breath, I concocted a plan,

Before the music started and the play began

Now Christmas is for all, its spirit of cheer

Should be a celebration throughout the year.

And no one could have missed the message that night

When a shiny pink bean stepped into the light.

For Maggie McFlan shuffled out with the cast

To deliver the line that would be the last.

Surrounded by Wise Men, sugar-plums  and cows

That jelly bean raised quite a few eyebrows!

She gathered the hands of all in the theater .

Looked out at the crowd and in words never sweeter

Explained rather boldly how her mom was gone

Fighting a war that has gone on too long.

Her mom was the one with a creative flair.

Dad did as he could when she wasn’t there.

Maggie looked at her costume and suddenly knew

Christmas is for everyone, that much was true.

So this Christmas time, she’ll continue to smile

And pray mom will come home, and stay for awhile.

‘Cause God listens to us, even jelly beans

When we focus on what Christmas truly means.