Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Christmas Carol Puzzle Poem

I wrote the Christmas carol anagram puzzle below for the December issue of a newsletter at work. I figured actuaries are pretty good at puzzles so I threw in a few tricky items. It took 8 days to get a full solution from anyone and the solver had to enlist 3 helpers! See if you're smarter than an actuary! Feel free to comment your solutions. 

Puzzle Poem – Christmas Drudgery
by Peter Hedgecock

With my beloved I wander the mall, ‘The Noel Twist’ blasting through the PA,
To naively hold thy peace with holiday cheer and encourage overspending ways.

Lo, Christmas but a week away the finer lots of gifts and goods are gone,
Naught but a solar cart kit for Tommy and a princess tea set for Jane remain.

Yet here we peruse the shelves, shopping for our cherished senile Mom,
I sit in exhaustion, my chair stumbles, and I ask myself “Isn’t a card enough”?

The buying spree which mistreats my feet makes me vow to stand no more,
My beloved, on soapbox, berates my sissy way; mania, anger, pleas fill my ears.

What guilt! Legs betrayed the pledge; my able cohorts fell. The throngs await!

Poetry isn’t my forte, but I do love a good puzzle! Somewhere in each line of the poem is a group of two or three consecutive words that forms an anagram of a Holiday song (e.g., Hidden in ‘Starbucks reforms this mocha chai’ is an anagram of ‘Home for Christmas’).

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