The following is an edited version of a letter sent to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission:

On Thursday, Jan. 21 you will consider tes timony to rescind the designation of an important overlay zoning district in the town of Oak Bluffs.

I am writing to you because I am opposed to the proposal to rescind the designation of the Copeland Plan district of critical planning concern.

A Decade Ends

KWANZAA CELEBRATION

Kwanzaa, the Festival of First Fruits, is a celebration of family, community, culture and values of traditional African culture. It was founded in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga as an African American and Pan-African holiday.

At the first Kwanzaa celebration the letter “a” was added to the end of the Swahili word kwanza, enabling seven children to participate in the meaning of the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

Light in Darkness

From earlier Christmas editions of the Gazette:

Chickadess perch on each wreath

Of greenery and underneath

The rabbits scamper past.

And nothing daunts the cheerful glow

Though falling sleet and driving snow

Come hissing on the blast.

True emblem of all pleasing things

The holly every winter brings

Amidst the frost and rime

Green leaves and ruddy berries ‘glow

And on humanity bestows

Christmas 2009

Six days ago the Polar Express raced up from the mid-Atlantic, streaking a blizzardy path from Washington, D.C. to New Jersey, Long Island, Cape Cod, the Vineyard, Nantucket and finally Nova Scotia. Travelers were stranded, ferries were cancelled and holiday retailers, already worried in the economic recession, worried even more.

Nancy died in seventy-three
She was only twenty-three
She was a gamer
She was a good one