Twelve Slanted Poems for Christmas

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Twelve Slanted Poems for Christmas

Edited by Helen Ivory &  Kate Birch, Nov 2013

Just read this pamphlet of new poems from some great UK poets. It does what it says on the gothic Christmas wrapper - it presents you Christmas from twisted slants. If you like dark, odd and the skewered, it's damn worth the read. It 's just twelve poems but the depth of them leaves you feeling you've eaten something red and meaty. It strips Christmas down to its turkey bones. It made me feel I'd read a special yet distinctly un-Christmassy affair. Another thing it does is inspires you to write something distinctly un-Christmassy about Christmas. A new muse:  always a grand thing.

I never talk turkey or poetry at Christmas- don't ask me why!

 

Twas Christmas day in the workhouse

And the snow lay on the grass

We don't want your Christmas pudding

Stuff it up your a*se!   

(Not my invention,the author of this jingle is unknown. There is a serious poem called Christmas Day in the Workhouse and someone then wrote this.)        Elsie

Love your jingle, Elsie. I'm not fond of turkey. Only eat vegetables. Quite proud that I evade Christmas dinner every year. I like poems though.

 

It's that time of year. Not all of us are Christians for starters and some Christians including Jehovahs Witnesses, Scotland's Wee Frees and historically Quakers too refuse to recognise it because they feet that every day is holy. I shall be washing up at my local community centre, the Open Door which does the Christian thing in a good way and rolls out free dinners to those who say in advance that they would like one. There is not a waiting list as such and people also get let in the door on the spot if needs be but advance names help the chef work out likely numbers. The volunteers all get a free din and I am willing to admit I do eat the turkey along with the pud. There are always more volunteers than non-volunteer guests though I have added myself to the ranks of the guests on one occasion. I will probably doggy bag something sweet for my younger daughter to go with her meal at home. If she wanted she could help as a waitress but she would rather watch TV and why not. The older one will be eating traditional Xmas fayre with her overstretched and normally synagogue going aunt in Finchley      Elsie