TRIP TO HISTORIC BATH POEM 22

Christmas Eve! The time when we quietly wait in our beds, knowing that Santa is leaving a gift if we have been good. Leaving him a snack is a good idea - and some carrots for the Reindeer too. What is your favourite gift?

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He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight — “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” Clement Clarke Moore

Perplexed

Intersecting lines do not conjoin but cut,

Biting each other at the tangent point,

Before and after untouched and pithy,

Are we still crossing each other’s path?

It is not easy to be a cool line,

Straight after a sort curvature being to

A point central and fixed on an axis,

Do all lines run to you for we have all and none?

The lines on my skin run deep veined,

And silently pulsating and counting the time,

Before and after an intersection is crossed,

And so a meeting of minds is made hastily.

So perplexed and perpendicular I lie,

Waiting for that intersection of time,

Coincidence and legend know this well,

But we are of neither nature bound.

“The Christmas presents once opened are Not So Much Fun as they were while we were in the process of examining, lifting, shaking, thinking about, and opening them. Three hundred sixty-five days later, we try again and find that the same thing has happened. Each time the goal is reached, it becomes Not So Much Fun, and we're off to reach the next one, then the next one, then the next. That doesn't mean that the goals we have don't count. They do, mostly because they cause us to go through the process and it's the process that makes us wise, happy, or whatever. If we do things in the wrong sort of way, it makes us miserable, angry, confused, and things like that. The goal has to be right for us, and it has to be beneficial, in order to ensure a beneficial process. But aside from that, it's really the process that's important.” Benjamin Hoff