On the Patch Where the Strawberries Grew

Gold cherry

By Turlough

Wed, 31 Dec 2025
  • 335 reads
14 comments
 

 

On the Patch Where the Strawberries Grew

 

At the edge of my world I’ll take a drink

At each end of my year, another

This night beneath our northern stars

I’m sent out alone, yet she’s with me

Where two breaths swirl in sanguine air

 

She’d have a small glass just for the luck

With one eye glinting, one wistful

Blaming the drink, one whiskey

Three sheets to the wind, she’d say of herself

Until angels took her arm, took her home

 

What use is the fiddle that’s left in its box?

What good’s a bottle, its neck choked with cork?

Now pull them both out

And watch your world dance

What use is a face full of sorrow?

 

I stood on the patch where the strawberries grew

Footprints in the snow led me back

We’d a canny old time in the Melbourne that night

With Isa there too, so the fourth sheet unfurled

Memories turning grey, then old, as I do

 

Celestial laughter rings from her realm

Beyond where Black Cats yowl

Seeing her eyes in the waning moon

I pull the cork on the strike of the bells

And step through the door when they’re still

 

Image:

My own photograph of the Angel of the North near Gateshead in England.

 

 

Certificate U
Poem
Poetry in Commotion
Surreal

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I get the feeling you're reminising about someone in this poem Turlough. Hope you get to pull the cork on the strike of the bells tonight...also step through that door into 2026 while they're still ringing.

All the best for the New Year and wishing you many more travels to look forward to. yes

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Aye Jenny. It's my Grandmother, English Electric Grace from an earlier a poem about washing days a few weeks ago.

Very best wishes for the New Year to you too, and to all those around you.

Turlough

Submitted by drew_gummerson on

And this is our final Pick of the Day for 2025 and what an apt one, as we raise a glass for those both with us and absent. Happy New Year all. 
 

Drew

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you very much Drew, and Happy New Year to you and to all those around you and to everybody really.

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

Very pleased to see Amazing Grace make a reappearance, she sounds like a lady who liked a NYE party !

Chestita Nova Godina to you and Priyatelkata.

So as not to miss my last opportunity of 2025 to send a comment thread off at a complete tangent, as is my wont,  I was watching something about Kenneth Branagh last night, and there was quite a bit about his film Belfast.  I haven't seen it, but the story of a wee boy who moved from NI to England, and felt very lost, reminded me of you.

And on a really complete tangent, Chesney Hawkes has bought a house in my village which used to be the old Horse and Jockey pub, so I am looking forward to him playing Plovdiv Village Hall !

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Ooooh! I’m very impressed!

Ee chestita Nova Godina na teb ee semee-eestvoto tee. (And Happy New Year to you and your family).

I’ve been thinking about the amazing grandmother and I’ve come to realise there’s a lot to be written about her. She was probably the toughest and most amusing member of our family and the one I knew best. So there’ll no doubt be more.

I’ve seen the film Belfast. It’s very good and interesting in that it’s probably the only film made about the Troubles as seen from a protestant perspective. It’s filmed in black and white which adds atmosphere. It contains a few glaring inaccuracies (such as the presence of a mixed denomination primary school in West Belfast in the 1960s) but without them there wouldn’t be much of a story. Only the father of the family is in England where he works in a car factory to send home money. The rest of them are still in Belfast.

Living in Plovdiv I’m sure that you’re already aware of the fact that Chestney (which is always pronounced more like Chesney) is the Bulgarian word for honest in the plural form. I hope you get to know the man when he moves in. He should be an interesting addition to your community.

Zhivot ee zdra-vay! (life and health!)

Turlough

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

What a wonderful final pick - which really belongs to English Electric Grace so congratulations to her and her optimism. Happy New Year to you Turlough!. I hope 2026 brings you everything you hope for!

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you very much indeed IPFN.

I've been thinking a lot about English Electric Grace just lately. She'd be 120 years old now if she was still alive, but she made it to 96 and kept us amused right up to the very end.

I wish you all the very best for the new year too. I hope it really is a new year to celebrate.

Good on you!

Turlough

Submitted by Turlough on

PS I'm delighted that I got the final pick of he day of the year. It's a bit like having the Christmas No 1. You can call me Noddy from now on.

Turlough

Submitted by TJW on

Strawberry Fields forever . . .

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Gracie Fields forever...

Turlough

Submitted by TJW on

All things must pass - GH

 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

Lovely. Looking forward, looking back. I like the title because that line, just past the middle, is very grounding but also hints at stories. Happy New year!

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you Catherine. It's interesting and pleasing that you see the title that way. And there are stories... so many!

Happy New Year and my best wishes to you. 

Turlough