END OF THE STORY; END OF THE YEAR

~Ice Sculpture contest entry~

from an email

 

  CONTINUATION OF LAST WEEK’S POST: How the months were named, from The Test and Study Speller, 1921. In olden times, there were only ten months. We got through the first six. Now for the last four.

“September comes from “septem” meaning seven.

“October comes from “octo” meaning eight.

 “November comes from “novem” meaning nine

“December comes from “decem” meaning ten.

 “After a great many years the Romans divided the year into twelve parts instead of ten. They added the two new months to the beginning of the year and called them January and February.

“January was named in honor of their god, Janus. It was thought that he sat at the entrance to every home guarding it from harm. He had two faces; one looked into the house, the other looked out. It may be that the Romans believed that Janus sat at the entrance of the new year, looking back over the past and forward into the future.

“February got its name from a holiday, called Februa, that [sic] came in the middle of that month.

“Again many years passed without any changes in the names of the months. But after Julius Caesar had become the ruler of about all the world that was then known, the Roman people honored him by giving his name to what they had always called their Fifth month. That is how we have July.

“After Julius Caesar came the great Augustus Caesar. The Romans wanted to honor him also so they called the month following July, August.”

            Okay, reader, that’s the whole story. Now, we open the storybook of 2014. How will each of ours read, I wonder. Mine will begin with A for “awe.” It’s amazing how fast each old year passes. I expressed that feeling several years ago with the poem below. It has the look of an acrostic and the pattern of a “Farewell” (suggested by the late Benton poet, Anna Nash Yarbrough) with the subject of “a farewell to someone, something or some condition in 7 unrhymed lines. The syllabic line-count is to be: 8-8-8-6-6-6-4."

  FAREWELL 

 G-alloping swiftly, as on fire;

 O-ver minutes, hours and days,

 O-beying nature’s agenda,

D-ashing through time down the

B-ackstretch of December,

Y-ou daze us with speed—an

E-ntire year gone.    [PL]

But looking ahead is the order of the day now, so how to improve on last year to make it healthier, holier, happier, hardier? That’s our challenge.

Happy New Year.

 

c lovepat press 2014