Thursday December 23, 2010
He opened his glaring eyes wide,
His whiskers, sharp as bristles,
He gave a wave of his strong tail,
He roamed at large, hungry and evil
If one heard a pitiful "meow"
He picked on the very poor
From them he took in one fell swoop
Hence it was that the women
Because you mustn't let the Cat
And when the lights came on, on Yule Eve
Some had gotten an apron
For all who got something new to wear
Whether he still exists I do not know.
Now you might be thinking of helping
Perhaps searching for those
Amusingly, Marla hadn't realized the image of the Yule Cat on the poem page was reversed, as a negative "to be visible" against the dark background.
I noticed it during the show, saved it, re-reversed it back to a positive and sent her the link, as well as so I could post it above.
Co-hosting
My friend and
ghost-book
author
Marla Brooks
invited me to co-host her
Stirring the Cauldron
online radio show's holiday edition, for December 23th.
This would be my seventh guest appearance on the famous
para-x
Thursday evening program.
I logged on Skype early and Marla texted me thereon, indicating her current producer, the reverend
Tim Shaw
(who also hosts the
Black Cat Lounge
show on para-x),
had forgotten he and I were already connected on Skype.
Just before he could call me in to the conference call, to my horror my computer spontaneously decided to reboot.
As quickly as I could I logged onto Skype and back into the
para-x chat room
in time for the show to start up.
The show went quite well, as Marla and I discussed various pagan, wiccan and witch'y Yule traditions, as well as Marla's recent discovery to the dark legend of the vicious
Icelandic Yule Cat,
the free-verse translation of
Vignir Jónsson's
of which Marla had earlier suggested I read aloud.
As I could not monitor the chat room during my reading, hopefully it went over well.
You all know the Yule Cat
And that Cat was huge indeed.
People didn't know where he came from
Or where he went.
The two of them glowing bright.
It took a really brave man
To look straight into them.
His back arched up high.
And the claws of his hairy paws
Were a terrible sight.
He jumped and he clawed and he hissed.
Sometimes up in the valley,
Sometimes down by the shore.
In the freezing Yule snow.
In every home
People shuddered at his name.
Something evil would happen soon.
Everybody knew he hunted men
But didn't care for mice.
That no new garments got
For Yule - who toiled
And lived in dire need.
Their whole Yule dinner
Always eating it himself
If he possibly could.
At their spinning wheels sat
Spinning a colorful thread
For a frock or a little sock.
Get hold of the little children.
They had to get something new to wear
From the grownups each year.
And the Cat peered in,
The little children stood rosy and proud
All dressed up in their new clothes.
And some had gotten shoes
Or something that was needed
- That was all it took.
Stayed out of that pussy-cat's grasp
He then gave an awful hiss
But went on his way.
But his visit would be in vain
If next time everybody
Got something new to wear.
Where help is needed most.
Perhaps you'll find some children
That have nothing at all.
That live in a lightless world
Will give you a happy day
And a Merry, Merry Yule.
We also discussed the upcoming event on the 25th: that BBC America would be airing the
Doctor Who
Christmas Day episode
A Christmas Carol
on the 25th, the same day as in England; normally such a new episode wouldn't be available in America for a week or three.
As always the hour raced by, and my computer again began to experience slight issues, most likely to my having open several windows and in the midst of downloading a large file.
Essentially everything froze up, though at least the Skype audio remained functioned as I remained connected.
I couldn't enter any text into the chat room or the Skype chat.
After the show, Marla and Tim and I chatted for a while, after which I simply shut down my computer to clear its RAM or whatever problem it was having.
So began the wait for the
archived podcast
to become available to which to listen and/or download...
