1328

 So This Is Sweet T&T

It's the month of November;

Shaking shak shak, playing mandolin and

guitar,

Frilly shirts swaying below

The smiles of young girls, 

Singing in school parang, contests.

Christmas trees; tinseled, baubled,

Spring up in banks, restuarants,

And such like places, blinking lights.

So this is sweet T&T;

Where the candy canes appear,

In sweet shops and parlours,

Because St Nicholas feast is near.

Buy a pack!

Hear the crinkle of celophane

Opening them.

Every child loves a candy cane;

Maybe its the shape,

Or maybe the stripes,

They love them.

So this is sweet T&T;

Soca, parang, and Christmas tunes

Play on the radio one hundred day to Christmas

Its all about, black cake and sorrel,

Ginger beer and ponche de creme,

Feasting and feteing;

A boy born in a manger.

Long before we were born.

© gillena cox 2025

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Poetics: So This Is…Ted Kooser, or Local Wonders 

REVISIT TO READ

 20221118

20161118
20151118

Here in Trinidad and Tobago🇹🇹 we celebrate 100 days of Christmas starting 23rd Sepember to 25th December; hosted by Sweet 101.1 FM Radio, where our local Christmas music is featured

ENJOY THE MUSIC

1337

[AI generated]

 Quadrille - Coax

Who coaxed the stars from my night sky

And left a blanket of charcoal cloud

Were not i

The one who sang aloud

Soca songs for party days

To liven mood swings oft

And psalms fit for church ways

Seemingly not enough. 

My stars!

© gillena cox 2025

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Q236 – Coaxing Is As It Does 

Challenge: to write a quadrille given word coax

REVISIT TO READ

 20211117

...........
.........

Here in Trinidad and Tobago🇹🇹 we celebrate 100 days of Christmas starting 23rd Sepember to 25th December; hosted by Sweet 101.1 FM Radio, where our local Christmas music is featured

ENJOY THE MUSIC

1336

 Present Day Shopper

Who goes to market to buy a fat pig

When children's rhymes are all but near extinct

Today our grocery stores are chuck fill

Enough lables, fill the basket with fig

Tap tapping on key boards no need of ink

Who goes to market to buy a fat pig

When children's rhymes are all but near extinct

What ever you do hold onto your wig

Don't let it perish in the kitchen sink

Nor let it be damaged in just a blink

Who goes to market to buy a fat pig

When children's rhymes are all but near extinct

Today our grocery stores are chuck fill

© gillena cox 2025

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  MTB: The Roundel ~ Circling back the Chaucerian Way 

Challenge: to write

A Chaucerian Roundel: 13 lines — 3 stanzas divided into 3 lines (tercet);  4 lines (quatrain);   6 lines (sestet),

usually 10 syllables per line as iambic pentameter; rhyme scheme: A B1 B2/a b A B1/a b b A B1 B2. 

REVISIT TO READ

 20231113

20171113
 .......

Here in Trinidad and Tobago🇹🇹 we celebrate 100 days of Christmas starting 23rd Sepember to 25th December; hosted by Sweet 101.1 FM Radio, where our local Christmas music is featured

ENJOY THE MUSIC

1336

[crop of a AI generated Image]

 Need of Lighting

It's as if the stars feel,

There is no need of lighting,

They have below, their neons,

They have their red light spaces,

I used to look up in a sky,

Full of nighf stars, some twinkling 

But now not so.

The sky turns coal black 

I wait for a lucky dawn,

When i can see a twinkling,

When i can even count them.

Tsk tsk!

It's as if the stars feel,

There is no more,

Need of lighting.

© gillena cox 2025

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Pivot 

REVISIT TO READ

 20171111A

20171111B
20161111

Here in Trinidad and Tobago🇹🇹 we celebrate 100 days of Christmas starting 23rd Sepember to 25th December; hosted by Sweet 101.1 FM Radio, where our local Christmas music is featured

ENJOY THE MUSIC

1335

  [image from google]

 November Letters

Was it yesterday? No, not yesterday. I learned to know the love of bare November days, before the coming of the snow, from letters.

Letters written in beautiful cursive hand, telling bleak tales, written when long nights, stretched to insomnia.

Insomnia, was never the writer's pleasure, rather instead, the stretch of words penned across oceans in relative conversation, with the art of anticipation to receive reciprocal replies, these were her November guests.

Those answers which warm the heart, like hot chocolate in which tiny mashmallows surf, on nights chilly like blizzard winds.

© gillena cox 2025

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Prosery: My November Guest 

NOTE: Todays poem is a proseey including lines given from 'My November Guest' by Robert Frost

REVISIT TO READ

 20221110

20201610

20171110

Here in Trinidad and Tobago🇹🇹 we celebrate 100 days of Christmas starting 23rd Sepember to 25th December; hosted by Sweet 101.1 FM Radio, where our local Christmas music is featured

ENJOY THE MUSIC

1334

 [image from google]

 Hands Engaged Love Language - A Choka

Coconut grated

On a tin grater, grated

Now water added

Coconut milk then squeezed 

Through fine cotton cloth

Sugar stirred into the milk

Boil, until thickened

Maybe chocolate added or

Or maybe ginger

Thicken enough to scoop out

 To a flat surface

 A large plate will surffice

Cut  squares evenly

For children cherished, this sweet

© gillena cox 2025

NOTE: Todays poem is a choka version, of the poem  i wrote, in response to yesterday's crafting prompt

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Open Link Night #395 

REVISIT TO READ

 20231106

20201106

20171106

Here in Trinidad and Tobago🇹🇹 we celebrate 100 days of Christmas starting 23rd Sepember to 25th December; hosted by Sweet 101.1 FM Radio, where our local Christmas music is featured

ENJOY THE MUSIC

1333

[image from google]

 Hands Emgaged Love Language

Coconut grated on a tin grater

Enough water added

Coconut milk squeezed 

Through fine cotton cloth

Sugar stirred into coconut milk

Boiled, until thickened and pastey

Maybe chocolate could be added

Or maybe ginger

Beat beat beat thicken some more

Thick enough to scoop out 

Onto a flat surface

Perhaps a large plate

Cut into squares when cool enough

A snack, a delight for children cherished

© gillena cox 2025

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

   Tuesday Poetics- Getting crafty  

REVISIT TO READ

  20161104

20151104

20151103

Here in Trinidad and Tobago🇹🇹 we celebrate 100 days of Christmas starting 23rd Sepember to 25th December; hosted by Sweet 101.1 FM Radio, where our local Christmas music is featured

ENJOY THE MUSIC