User:Drbriangsnow
"To Santa Claus and Little Sisters" A Poem By Anonymous. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903353,00.html
The poem was thought to be written by Anonymous, a reported 14 or 15 year old boy that committed suicide two years after writing the poem, although no exact age or poem-to-suicide timeline can be established by documented research at this point.
Poem has been published in numerous online poetry journals - http://www.poemtree.com/poems/ToSantaClaus.htm
- http://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/once.html
This poem also has been used in many school peer educational classes to highlight the agony of teen suicide, and possibly used in undergraduate psychology classes for special education preparation courses.
Time Magazine article March 13, 1972 features only small part of poem, highlighting the difficulty of accessing the real poem origin and contents.
"To Santa Claus and Little Sisters" - History of The Poem
"A few days ago one of my facebook contacts shared a link to the website of Poetry Circle. The entry you ran was titled "Poetry and suicide" but I accept that the decision was taken to give please click the word suicide and not the word poetry. There on the page showed a poem entitled "To Santa Claus and Little Sisters" who actually spoke of suicide. Guided by leisure (and the curiosity) I almost decided to skip the introduction of just two paragraphs, which identifies the translation credits and presents the text in question as "the haunting poem by a suicidal, a young American poet died in the early 70s. "
The poem itself was good enough to capture anyone's attention quickly, and the translation does not owe anything to the original version (placed just below), after reading what I pondered a bit and later, after dinner, I decided to take my pencils because I thought as I read more than once that it would be good illustrate. When I returned to the computer I realized that I had not had the foresight to save the link and title only remembered "santa claus", I went to Google and searched "And I called it chops" it was the only full line could remember (and my memory works, we're going to do). The results showed in the first instance the name of Stephen Chbosky and his book recently adapted to film "The perks of being a wallflower". If anything could remember from the entry that started it all, was the part where he talked about a teenager who committed suicide anonymous two years before the first publication of the poem.
By that time I had told my buddy about the text and illustrate my intentions, so after running into a horde of teenagers attributed the poem to Chbosky form a team to try to find out who was right. To make a long story short, our first round of investigations led us to find titles for different versions of the same text and at least three possible authors based on feedback from the masses. Not counting Osoanon Nimuss in whom we lost half an hour before realizing the stupid game that contains your name. So before we get to the light as the main suspects Patrick Comeaux with "chops", Dr. Earl Reum with "A person, on paper, to promise", the titles "Absolutely nothing" and "To Santa Claus and little sisters" written by anonymous and on the other hand a lot of fans of Stephen Chbosky who read for the first time text "The perks of being a wallflower".
Immediately Chbosky could dismiss because the novel was first published in 1999 and the oldest publication we could find the poem reaches 1972 in Time magazine. In this famous magazine text appears with the title "To Santa Claus and little sisters" but according to Poetry Circle text is clipped. At the point that it was a tangle of names and titles found myself again with the entry that had started it all, this time read more carefully the second paragraph. The last three input lines say: "This we present is the full version of the poem (translated from the original English into Spanish for the first time to our knowledge), which was received from a resident of Texas woman called Vicky Moody, who I learned in school in 1972. "It was so my next move was to find out who this woman was so prodigious Texan with memory. By themselves, the words "Vicky Moody" did not yield results, but searching for them along with the title proposed by the famous poetry magazine found something that looked like a bad joke and that left us walking in circles. The Poem Tree Poetry website showed an entry in which there were two versions of the poem, both entitled To Santa Claus and little sisters, but of different lengths. To do more bluntly, the last lines of the note editor Poem Tree say: "This is the full version, que I received from a lady in Texas named Vicky Moody, who learned it in school in 1972, and to Whom I am very grateful. "
There is no need to translate it, Circle of poetry and did it for us, and it was not me who said plagiarism, but not only those lines that is in common, but that the whole paragraph is a Spanish version of the note Poem Tree Editor, who will surely make us the favor to communicate with Vicky Moody if we asked for it.
Anyway, they were all wrong and we could save a lot of time have realized from the beginning, but our research started at the opposite end of the road. After a couple of hours guessing again gave the Chbosky book. If fans were fanatical enough they would have realized that the same Chbosky thanks Dr. Earl Reum for writing the poem and Patrick Comeaux (childhood friend of Stephen Chbosky) "for remembering wrong." Thus, the version that appears in the book of Stephen (titled "chops") is a reconstruction of a memory check from Patrick Comeaux Reum poem, although the latter did not know or the same Stephen Chbosky, who had to be to the task of investigating the origin of the poem before publishing his book. The only thing missing was discovering all that history of suicidal teenager and the way in which the poem was continued transmitting and transforming for generations. Fortunately it did not take much, as to find out who was Earl Reum and learn about his work was easy to guess what we would be confirmed later.
Earl Reum spent much of his life to take care of the youth, along with the National Association of Workshop Directors (NAWD he founded in 1973) traveled throughout North America carrying motivational and educational lectures to schools. Reum used to read this poem as part of his motivational talks, perhaps in those dedicated to the prevention of teen suicide. And it is likely that the idea that it was written by a young suicide has left the Reum own, as to meet its work should take care of echoing in young minds who heard and what better way than to tell it well. Although the latter is conjecture, Hodges Genel confirms some aspects on a blog that dedicated to the activities of NAWD (CEO since 1989). Genel Reum remembers reading the poem in many of his lectures and in the words of Mary Reum (wife of Earl) tells us that details of the poem as it was headed Earl Reum poem named "The Yellow Paper". As for the story of young suicide Genel mentioned:
"Earl wrote so many things, but Mary factotum believes I wrote this after a student suicide Committed During his early years of teaching.He was very Affected by the student's death and incorporated this in a lesson for other students."
"Earl wrote many things, but Mary believes that he wrote this after a student committed suicide during the first year as a teacher Reum. He was very affected by the death of young and incorporated this into a lesson for other students. "
After solving the mystery of authorship and the way his legend grew we decided to terminate the investigation, but as we flourish another lesser known author: Brian Snow, who also knew how to use the legend behind the poem to be noted. Brian Snow is the author of a book called "To Santa Claus and little sister" apparently revolves around the poem and the author's use anonymous to add a bit of drama, and to be mentioned has its own theme song. Snow clarifies But near the end of his book website that the poem was written by Reum and mentions in the book appeared Chbosky. What's more we leave this gem comment on a blog :
"Brian Snow June 10, 2013 at 10:48 a.m. The poem was written by Dr. Ruem (Reum) in 1969 - used in several school districts peer education on the prevention of teen suicide - was used by Stephen Chbosky in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". Used over 130 times in research articles - was not written by a teenage suicide as indicated, but very effective. This poem has changed many lives, mine included. I even lost loved ones to suicide. Thanks - I hope this helps. Dr. Brian G Snow "
Finally and after many detours we let the poem as it appears on the site Genel Hodges, written by the pen of Earl Reum until proven otherwise.
The Yellow Paper (A Person, A Paper, A Promise)
by Dr. Earl Reum
Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem
And he called it "Chops"
Because That was the name of his dog
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A and a gold star
And his mother hung it on the kitchen door
and read it to his aunts.
That was the year Father Tracy
took all the kids to the zoo
And he let them sing on the bus
And his little sister was born
with tiny toenails and no hair
And his mother and father kissed a lot
And the girl around the corner sent him
a Valentine signed with a row of X's
and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to do it.
Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines
He wrote a poem
And he called it "Autumn"
Because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
And asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
Because of its new paint
And the kids told him
Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the pews
And sometimes they would burn holes
That was the year his sister got glasses
with thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the corner laughed
When he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him why
His mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad
When he cried for him to do it.
Once on a paper torn from his notebook
He wrote a poem
And he called it "Innocence: A Question"
Because that was the question about his girl
And that's what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A
and a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
Because he never showed her.
That was the year Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end
of the Apostle's Creed went
And he caught his sister
making out on the back porch
And his mother and father never kissed
or even talked
And the girl around the corner
wore too much makeup
That made him cough when he kissed her
but he kissed her anyway
Because that was the thing to do
And at three am he tucked himself into bed
his father snoring soundly
That's why on the back of a brown paper bag
He tried another poem
And I called it "Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it
was really all about
And I gave himself an A
and a slash on each damned wrist
And I hung it on the bathroom door
Because this time he did not
think he could reach the kitchen."
- Stephen Chbosky, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
To Santa Claus and Little Sisters
by Anonymous
Once, On yellow paper, with green lines, he wrote a poem, And called it "Chops", Because that was the name of his dog, And that's what it was all about. And the teacher gave him an "A" And a gold star, And his mother hung it on the kitchen door, And read it to all his aunts. That was the year his sister was born, With tiny toenails and no hair, And Father Tracy took them to the zoo And let them sing on the bus. And his mother and father kissed a lot And the girl around the corner sent him a Christmas card Signed with a row of x's. And his father always tucked him in at night, And he was always there to do it.
Once, On white paper, with blue lines, he wrote another poem. And he called it "Autumn" Because that was the name of a season, And that's what it was all about. And the teacher gave him an "A" And told him to write more clearly. And his mother didn't hang it on the kitchen door Because the door Had just been painted.
That was the year his sister got glasses, With black frames and thick lenses. And the kids told him why father and mother Kissed a lot, And that Father Tracy smoked cigars And left butts on the pews, And the girl around the block laughed When he went to see Santa Claus at Macy's. And his father stopped tucking him in bed at night, And got mad when he cried for him to.
Once, On paper torn from his notebook, he wrote another poem, And he called it "Question Marked Innocence", Because that was the name of his grief And that's what it was all about. And the professor gave him an "A" And a strange and steady look. And his mother never hung it on the door Because he never let her see it. That year he found his sister necking on the back porch And his parents never kissed, or even smiled. And he forgot how the end of the "Apostle’s Creed" went, And Father Tracy died. And the girl around the block wore too much make-up That made him cough when he kissed her, But he kissed her anyway,
Once, At 3 a.m., he tucked himself in bed, His father snoring soundly. He tried another poem, on the back of a pack of matches, And he called it "absolutely nothing" Because that's what it was all about. And he gave himself an "A" And a slash on each damp wrist, And hung it on the bathroom door, Because he couldn't reach the kitchen.