Christmas Time

Christmas time has come again

Bringing drifts of snow

It's the season of goodwill to men

So let compassion flow

Gather around your Christmas tree

Erected in the square

Sing your praises

To our Lord

For he is everywhere

Young and old

Around the world

Lift up your hearts

And set them free

Sing out loud

Your favourite hymns

Whilst gathered

Round your Christmas tree

Imagine every light

Which shines on every tree

That they represent a kind of love

Which shines

On you and me

So gather around

Your Christmas tree

Erected in the square

And sing your praises

To our Lord

For he is everywhere.

EDDIE JEPSON Mansfield

I know you are no longer with us

There are things I wish to say

I never expressed my feeling

On this your special day

Is it to late to voice my love?

Of things I wished I'd said

Will you hear my plea?

Now that you are dead

I feel it's very difficult

I don't know where to start

For tears fall like a waterfall

As I suffer from a broken heart

My child I know your feelings

There's nothing for you to feel sad

You will now know the love

For you your father had

Your father is happy

He knows your words were few

For now you have a family

Who are very proud of you?

So when your family give you a card

Read the words on display

Know that verse is filled with love

To wish you happy Father's Day

MALCOLM G BRADSHAW Carlton

Dark days we will remember

A time we won't forget,

People without a future

No jobs, no life, just debt.

Services for those in need

Cuts so deep and cold,

Who will help the vulnerable

Not the coalition we are told.

What happened to prevention

As the poorest takes the strain,

Where's this muted fairness

Aboard this ghost-like train.

Years spent building services

Responding to the need,

Services we are proud of

Just to see them bleed.

Sadness and frustration

As we listen to the hike,

To be told if we don't like it

We can all get on our bike.

It's survival of the fittest

Irrespective of your age,

A doomsdayer of our country

Turning the next blank page.

In to care or homelessness

Lives ending, a way out?

One less to need resources

One less to care about.

Going back four decades

We thought we'd left behind,

When people faced no future

In the spiral of decline.

Once upon this lifetime

People struggled on their own,

We see those times returning

As Cathy's Coming Home.

GEMMA LUCAS Mansfield

I'm the little wooden donkey

Who, outside the church, each year,

Stands guard within the manger

On the midnight crisp and clear.

It's cold, bone-chilling icy

As I stand here all night long

Whilst a hidden gramophone clacks out

Some crackled Christmas song.

The straw is insufficient

To keep Baby Jesus safe

From the rigours of the winter

And He's rather blue of face.

And Joseph, better days has seen

And likewise Mary too;

They're huddled up in shivers,

Well, wouldn't you be too?

And yonder star is flick'ring

Its damp cell-pack packing in,

But, in truth to tell, when set up

It was looking rather dim.

The Three Kings, frozen-fingered

Each their ancient gift has lost,

Well, one loses all one's feeling

In the midnight winter frost.

And when the windows darken

In the cottages round town,

No one ventures out at all

To midnight wander down.

So next Christmas show compassion

On your manger scene down here

And set us up within the church

On those midnights crisp and clear.

IAN C GRAY Wollaton Park

Let's all join the Boy Scouts; It's nineteen hundred and ten

Baden-Powell had started Scouting

It was a world for men

But girls were getting restless, So bored with games and toys

They dressed in borrowed clothing,

And went to join the boys

You can't do that said BP,

I'll think of something new

Young ladies will be Girl Guides,

Wear uniforms of blue

So Guides began, then Brownies,

Things were so different then

Take a look into the past,

The year is 1910

A Girl Guide from the 30s

Had a hat with brim so wide

Wore a lanyard and her shoulder knots

A whistle by her side

Learnt Morse code and signalling and many a useful thing

But still she made her promise

To her country and her king

From the 60s to the 70s

Came the mini-skirted look

New hat, new tie, new badges, With the latest new handbook

But the Girl Guide still loves camping

And walking in the rain

The fashions may be changing But the promise stays the same

The 80s bring new challenges, It's time to modernise

Wear baseball caps and sweatshirts,

Away with hats and ties

Girls are joining Venture Scouts,

Seeking skills to share

They're abseiling, canoeing too,

Adventures in the air

And so into two thousand, We've joined the new jet set

With videos and mobile phones,

We're on the internet

There are Brownies, Guides and Rangers, Rainbows and Trefoil too

Millennium, all-age Guiding, So join us it's for you

We've travelled through the ages

Along with those who shared

The Promise and the Guide Law,

Our Motto, Be Prepared

The bond of Guiding binds us In friendships old and new

May we keep the flame of Guiding

Forever strong and true

And now we've reached 100, its time to celebrate

The past is full of memories, The future's looking great

So let's all join the party,

Come on and have some fun

Three cheers for Notts Girl Guiding,

It's there for everyone

JEAN JONES Carlton

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