More voices on the page, or on the computer screen of this blog, continue to echo into the first hours of a new year. Here are some more of the voices that brightened “A Little Romance” in 2009.

Ghislaine Chock, whose poems “The Phone” and “The Office” appear in the new Bamboo Ridge collection … I asked Ghislaine to comment on the creation of these two poems and the inspiration for them:

The creation of these poems came naturally. I learned from Eric that even if you are not a poet one can express feelings, moments, emotions, etc. through poetry. I am more than fortunate to live with a poet. Poets are able to make you understand and see the world through their keen eyes with exquisite sensitivity. That is their function.

After writing this week about killer cliches, and then about a character whose great obsession is the disturbing preposition in the phrase “in Maui,” I was going to plunge once more into the dark seas of murky language. But then the Hawaii weather turned crisp and clear, I began listening to the words of some of my favorite Christmas music, and I decided not to take the plunge.

Instead I took out “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and surrendered to the magical words of Dylan Thomas. I don’t want to talk about this classic, I just want to experience it, again.