~~
It’s Springtime now Down Under
While we here are right in the Fall
Hard to believe it’s the same Earth
It barely makes sense at all.
~~
I wonder how folks in the old days
Reacted to this bit of news
That Christmas could be in the summer
Did they think it was some kind of ruse?
~~
Oh – look what I wrote up above there!
A captive of my point of view
Though for folks in the lands Down Under
This cannot be anything new.
~~
So let’s start this poem all over
Let’s turn it upside on its head
And now, it is Fall Over Yonder
But here it’s the time to plant beds.
Cynthia Reyes 
Whimsical and wonderful!
That has a certain ring to it, Cindy: whimsical and wonderful. Any day now, it will also become wondercal and whimsiful.
Witty wonderings, or should that be wanderings? And to add to the fun, you can have a summer Christmas in the snow. http://mentalfloss.com/article/58810/8-antarctic-traditions
Methinks ’tis both wonderings and wanderings, and thanks for your attachment. Tis interesting!
Reblogged this on John Cowgill's Literature Site and commented:
By Cynthia Reyes.
Very clever and amusing.
Thanks, Bernadette.
Beautiful vase of daffs.
Christmas in the sun (Sydney) was quite odd. It didn’t seem quite real.
They must feel the same way about our cold Christmases, methinks.
😀 I do find it odd seeing photos of Spring flowers when I’m just planting the bulbs! Truly we live in a wonderful world!
Tis, so, tis so! A wonderful world.
-D 😀 😀 C.l.e.v.e.r.
Haha… and maybe a wee bit silly too!
Indeed. 😀 A wee bit silly, too.
Yes, the Earth is truly amazing. I just got back from a colorful Fall up north and returned to very green trees with newly blooming flowers down here in the south.
It is a funny, dear, grand old Earth that we are privileged to inhabit.
Isn’t this Earth just wonderful? ♥♥
It surely is. Thanks for your reply.
[D] Delightfully potty!
Indeed, indeed! Methinks :”potty” is too polite for my silly verses, but thanks nonetheless!
If they are Down Under, are we Up Over? It’s all relative…but that’s what you’ve cleverly said!
I really like that: Up Over! Up Over is wonderful.
The master of whimsical poetry strikes again! You brought a big smile to my face. Thanks Cynthia. 🙂
It’s whimsical and flimsical, and one of these days it may become musical poetry. We can only hope. Thank you, Brad.
Musical poetry sounds wonderful Cynthia. Will you or have you read any of your poems aloud? I’ve only recently read a couple of mine at local poetry groups. 🙂 And slam poetry is a whole other level of poetry and performance!
I wouldn’t have the nerve, Brad. I can see you reading your poetry, because it is that, but my stuff? No way. I usually write verses when my vocabulary is off and I’m speaking in stutters. The rhyming verses help me to smile and push my store of words outwards.
I think we’re all very critical of ourselves. Your poetry is wonderful too. And it was both nerve wracking and empowering to share mine aloud. 🙂
Nice!! 🙂
Thank you!
Dear Cynthia, thank you for the delightful smile-making poem & post. 🙂
Blessings from the rainy island ~ Wendy
Sometimes I feel like I am down under!
I hear you, sister.
Is it snowing?
Not yet, thank God!
What a witty woman you are! 🙂 I have never spent Christmas away from home let alone in a part of the world that is experiencing a different season!
I think the two of us should go visit Gallivanta in our winter, and she can come visit us in our warm months. Then we’ll all be comfy, all year round!
That sounds like a very good idea!
Start buying those lottery tickets.
What a lovely and clever post. I remember when I was young we used to have the traditional Christmas food (served hot – yucky in our crippling summers). Now we have cold Christmas food with prawns and crabs and cold meat and salads. Hmmm, much nicer 🙂
Very smart move. Funny how we can hold on to the old traditions … till we realize that something different would be better. I’ll take prawns and crabs and salad over turkey any day!
Thanks for this witty rhyme, Cynthia! It all depends on where you sit, doesn’t it?
It does, it does!
A lovely chuckle, thanks. This is one of the great benefits of blogging – following another season as well as one’s own.
Yes, it does. Blogging really does open up our world.
A thoughtful chuckle from this rhyme! I often forget that my friends in the southern hemisphere are in full spring as our fall season wearily treads its way towards another winter . Yet even Christmas in Florida, where some of my relatives are located, does not seem quite the same with their palm trees and tropical greenery as Christmas here with tall, sheltering conifers. My view is an definitely an artifact of having grown up in New England, but it is really the Spirit of the Season that matters most, no matter how one cloaks it.
I love that Christmas tree photo. I can’t put up a Christmas tree anymore, or decorations. The cats enjoy them far too much!
You’re right. It’s the spirit that matters, and what a joyful spirit. In Jamaica, where Christmas is tropical, the Christmas rituals are the same, and the fruit cake just has more rum/brandy! And while most of the food and preparations are different, I remember people going around crooning: “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”.
I remember having fruit cake, as well as the fudge and wild grape jelly my Aunt Lavinia would make everyone for Christmas. It all came neatly packaged with a bow and gift tag. In later years she made Christmas tree-shaped candles. Your post brings back many good memories of a time when Christmas was far lees commercial than it is today. 🙂
So your aunt is who you are named for! Such nice Christmas memories.
I was told that the name has been in the family for about 300 years. As far as I know, I am the last of my kind, the pterodactyl of that side of the family. 🙂 My Aunt spelled her name slightly differently, with two “n”s. I am not sure why. She was known as “Vinnie”, but I have never used that nickname.
Vinnie? No, no. I like the name Lavinia!
Me too!
It is very interesting how seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere. While I’m enjoying fall weather in Europe, I’ll return to summer like weather in Florida…so I’m even more confused with the seasons. 🙂
I hear you, sister. Would confuse me too!
Great fun Cynthia – I was only ever really vaguely aware of the seasons on the other side of the globe (Australians having Christmas dinner on the beach and the like), but since I started blogging, it’s so interesting getting that perspective regularly of others experiencing life in a different season at the same time!
My first time in S. Africa was in June — winter! Never as cold as our Canadian winters, but — even though I knew beforehand — experiencing winter in Africa was a blast! Quite a bit colder that my cold mountainside village in Jamaica.
Humorous and clever! A word playground. Really cool
(Hope your Holler-Ring is spooktacular)
A spooktacular Holler-Ring to you too!
I loved this, Cynthia. When I was in high school, on year my family spent Christmas in Florida. It just didn’t seem the same sitting around the Christmas tree on the screened in porch wearing shorts. 🙂 I need a little chill in the air to get me into the spirit.
Thanks for your lovely reply, Jill. I imagine if I returned to Jamaica this Christmas I would feel the same way at first, and then the Christmas spirit would take over, and all would be well!
This made me giggle – but it is so true! Last Christmas it was so warm here in Florida that we were in shorts for Christmas lunch! It just didn’t seem festive at all!
I hear you!
Reblogged this on A Place in the World and commented:
For my Friends Down Under (the long white Cloud)
Smiling at your lovely poem, Cynthia – it is a topsy turvy world! Just seeing the daffodils confuses me…which season is it? I know people from Australia and it always sounds so odd to be playing on the beach on Christmas holidays…but of course its their norm!
Exactly!
That is funny isn’t it. I’m writing a book right now that has the world “upside down.” It took some getting used to!
It’s your adult brain! Such terms make kids giggle in wonder.
Your poem reminded me of something Tolkien wrote once. He spent his early childhood in South Africa, and he said his early memories of Christmas were of blazing hot summer days.
Thanks for sharing this–it made me smile. And thanks especially for rhyming it. I like free verse at times, too, but sometimes I want a predictable rhyme and meter I can sink my teeth into. 🙂
Hi Cathleen: Thank you!
I don’t feel called to write ‘poetry’, but rhyming verses have played a special role in my life!
I went through years of struggle with both speaking and writing. On my really awful days, I could not complete a sentence. Frustrated and sad, I one day forced myself to write one word, then the next, until I had a line. Then — sometimes days later — I’d return to that line, and compose the next one. There was only one rule: it had to rhyme with the first. When I got more confident, I tried to alternate the rhyming lines.
I called them nonsense poems, and these verses helped me rebuild my vocabulary, along with my journals and bits of note papers. So here’s to nonsense poetry!
It’s really hard to believe … Some places have spring: isn’t that excellent? Europe is very cold and snowy already, and we have Indian summer. Such a variety …
Indeed, Inese.
’tis a wonder for sure. Fun read! Tina
Thank you, Tina!
I ❤ it dear Cynthia… it is spring over here (down here) and Christmas is often a very warm- hot day! … I find difficult to think of a cold day for Xmas… but it seems our world behaves in such ways! 😀 happy sunday… all my best wishes,