{"id":28940,"date":"2017-12-24T04:33:09","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T12:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/?p=28940"},"modified":"2017-12-22T18:34:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-23T02:34:11","slug":"remembering-merry-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/remembering-merry-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering – Merry Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editors’ Note: Dr. Pournelle posted the following on December 24, 2002.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Web Guy wishes all a Merry Christmas – or your personal equivalent.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

From Rod McFadden<\/p>\n

Christmas Eve at Sea John Masefield<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A wind is rustling “south and soft,”
\nCooing a quiet country tune.
\nThe calm sea sighs, and far aloft
\nthe sails are ghostly in the moon.<\/p>\n

Unquiet ripples lisp and purr,
\nA block there pipes and chirps i’ the sheave,
\nThe wheel-ropes jar, the reef-points stir
\nFaintly –and it is Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

The hushed sea seems to hold her breath,
\nand o’er the giddy, swaying spars,
\nSilent and excellent as Death,
\nThe dim blue skies are bright with stars.<\/p>\n

Dear God — they shone in Palestine
\nLike this, and yon pale moon serene
\nLooked down among the lowing kine
\nOn Mary and the Nazarene.<\/p>\n

The angels called from deep to deep,
\nThe burning heavens felt the thrill,
\nstartling the flocks of silly sheep
\nAnd lonely shepherds on the hill.<\/p>\n

To-night beneath the dripping bows
\nwhere flashing bubbles burst and throng,
\nThe bow-wash murmurs and sighs and soughs
\nA message from the angels’ song.<\/p>\n

The moon goes nodding down the west,
\nThe drowsy helmsman strikes the bell;
\nRex Judaorum natus est,
\nI charge you, brothers, sing Nowell, Nowell,
\nRex Judaorum natus est<\/p>\n

John Masefield
\nSalt-water Ballads
\n1902<\/p>\n

Godspeed, everyone.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editors’ Note: Dr. Pournelle posted the following on December 24, 2002. The Web Guy wishes all a Merry Christmas – or your personal equivalent. From Rod McFadden Christmas Eve at Sea John Masefield A wind is rustling “south and soft,” Cooing a quiet country tune. The calm sea sighs, and \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-remembering"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}