How are your Christmas plans going? (What do you mean, is it Christmas?!).
We rush about getting ready for what really is one day – Boxing Day now succumbed to early January sales – but do we really think about the day itself?
Lovely and talented poet Trisha Broomfield certainly has and has summed it up succinctly in this terrifically detailed piece.
An alphabet poem too – one of my favourite forms. Do read on, this could be uncomfortable reading for most of us. Fantastic piece;
Activities you don’t enjoy, or do?
Brussel sprouts, yum or yuk,
Cat attempts to climb the tree,
Dropping needles, broken lights.
Easy on the Bailey’s Gran!
Festooned rooms and red balloons,
Gargantuan portions, of above mentioned sprouts.
Heavy stomachs and sighs.
Incredible inedibles from pop up shops.
Jesus mentioned in passing.
Kisses, mistletoe or not
Love, written mainly on cards.
Most of us exhausted,
No one listening
Only The Lonely, by Roy.
Panic for just one day.
Quarrels inevitable,
Resultant huffy teens.
Snoring granddads.
Telly a trial, not just a bushtucker one.
Underwear wished for doesn’t fit.
Victory on the Monopoly board, (I’m the top hat).
Wishing it over, wishing it longer.
Xmas, hate that word.
Yearnings for loves lost since last year.
Z beds pulled out for nephews.
02/12/2022Trisha Broomfield
Wasn’t that just a terrific piece. So true and poignant – and I get the sneakiest feeling we wouldn’t change any of it.
Thank you so much Trisha, please keep them coming.
Thanks for tuning in, PL’s. Any poems summing that big day are welcome. Answers on a postcard to the usual address….we’ll be back real soon.
Now you may think this is an unusual title but it really is a more commonplace term than you realise. Highlighting the most frustrating side of those Yuletide preparations, and clever poet Sharron Green has summed this up nicely in this beautiful piece.
Amusing and painfully relevant to us this coming advent, do read it. Super piece ;
Gift Gaffe
Sellotape and wrapping paper One the glue the other draper Send me on a merry caper Every Christmas Eve
Sellotape is always hiding Often stunted, never gliding Won’t respond to threats or chiding Highly prone to cleave
Wrapping paper does my head in Sometimes gifts won’t be seen dead in Shapes that gape they look unfed in Shame you won’t believe
So it’s just as well this season Poor performance isn’t treason Saving paper is the reason There’s wrapping reprieve.
@rhymes_n_roses
Wasn’t that just a wonderful piece?! Thank you so much, Sharron. Please keep them coming. This is Sharron’s website if you wanted to see more of her wonderful work;
Yes, Christmas is around the corner and I have thrown myself fully into Yuletide.
For a start, I have written a triolet on Christmas – the dark side of the season anyway. This can be a stagnant period of tension and many family rows occur over this season. I have tried to capture that. Followed by a Christmas alphabet poem which I had to struggle with.
Anyway, do read on:
Christmas Triolet
Christmas conflicts ring loud and bright
For numerous relatives and wives
Anticipating at least one family fight
Christmas conflicts ring loud and bright
Stingy presents from aunts so tight
Who’ve been resentful all their lives
Christmas conflicts ring loud and bright
For numerous relatives and wives
Christmas Alphabet
Angels/Blitzen/Comet/Dasher/Ecclesiastical/
Festive/Gabriel/Holly/Ivy/Jesus/Kindness/
Lights/Merry/Nativity/Occasion/Prancer/
Quality(Street)/Rudolph/Star/Tinsel/
Unwrapping/Vixen/Wise(Men)/Xmas/Yuletide/Zion
Thanks for looking in, PL’s. I have to say that last one was hard but I know some of you have really bang up versions of the above form, so answers on a postcard please to the usual address……
Yes, you heard right, I said return to Tenby. That magical place I discovered in May this year. I was honoured to be invited back by the magical Celine for the launch of Celine’s Salon Anthology volume 2.
So there I went on the train back to Pembrokeshire. This time the train wasn’t crowded with holidaymakers and Welsh speakers and I certainly missed the latter.
We found a lovely apartment in the centre of town. Bakery and M&Co in walking distance! What a coup!
I got off the train, put my case in the flat and legged it to the Tenby Museum for the launch. My heart warmed to see that lovely place once again.
Once there, I had the pleasure of meeting the marvellous Rachel D’arcy, a very talented singer and musician, plus I reunited with the enigmatic Kevin O’Dowd and the lovely LaLa Banana in her silvery jacket
Not to mention Suzie Wildsmith and the stunning Siobhan Lancaster, before meeting Tommy Mack and the talented musician Garin Lang from Breathe. Watch out for him, and speaking of talent, it was lovely seeing Ros Garret again and her stunning trio making such beautiful sounds. This all added to the vibrancy of the poetry read, and Celine’s Salon volume 2 anthology selling really well.
I’m not sure who this poet was, but she pushed in and read complete filth. Amazed the place wasn’t raided! Seriously, it was an enriching experience, all made possible by the ever resourceful Celine.
Thank you so much, Celine. I look forward to returning to this magical place with you next year.
Meanwhile Celine has her salon and Derry to look forward to in 2023 before we embrace our Welsh friends again.
Thanks for tuning in, PL’s, and reliving that triumphant experience with me. We’ll be back with more poetry action real soon…
Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I know this is not really our celebration but I would like to acknowledge and illustrate the occasion. I’ve always been a bit infatuated with this celebration and love seeing images of the food Americans serve up. So much food groaning on a table, served with love
So, I’ve written a couple of triolets about this particular holiday. Hope they’re not too slapdash…
Please come to our Thanksgiving meal
and sit at the table with us.
Food is the warm reflection we feel.
Please come to our Thanksgiving meal.
The food we serve is warm and real
but we don’t want a lot of fuss.
Please come to our Thanksgiving meal
and sit at the table with us.
A huge turkey on the table
that groans with rich food.
Pass me that oyster pie, Mabel.
A huge turkey on the table.
We’ll just eat what we’re able
otherwise it will seem rude.
A huge turkey on the table
that groans with rich food.
H Moulson 2022
I hope you liked those pieces, PL’s. I had to look up Oyster pie and cornbreads and hope that I’ve justified them. And as you can see, Dobby has her own Thanksgiving meal there.
Thanks for tuning in, Poetry Lovers. Happy Thanksgiving and we’ll be back with more poetry antics real soon….
Let me lead you once again to nostalgia corner. Talented poet Trisha Broomfield has written a follow-up to my recent piece on Talcum powder.
This particular, now overlooked, beauty item is playing on my mind, I think it’s because Christmas is approaching. Which as we know, is the ultimate nostalgic corner.
Anyway read this terrific and so wistful piece, and see how many brands you recognise – and probably still yearn for….
Talcum Powder
We filled our shoes,
walked in clouds of blissful ignorance,
Bronnley Freesia billowed out.
We puffed plastic bottles, more clouds,
liberally into our bras and knicks.
Cuticura, sprinkled like icing sugar,
on bathroom floors,
retained our flat-foot after bath prints.
Ashes of Roses for the bold,
Lenthéric Tweed for the old.
Then there was Kiku in its golden globe
with tasselled top.
The softest powder puff
luxurious in size, made a girl feel special,
like its pal, Xanadu,
a purple bomb contained its pong.
Talc, an essential present when stuck,
second only to square bath cubes,
scented with whatever Morney had in mind.
How I miss the ritual bliss.
@magentapink22
26/10/2022Trisha Broomfield
Wasn’t that such a beautiful piece?! Where have these glamorous staples gone?! Thank you so much, Trisha, please keep them coming…
Thanks for tuning in, PL’s. We’ll be back with more poetry action real soon……
Welcome back to the Poetry Basket, I have missed it, I have to say. Inside this hallowed basket is a wonderful new collection by talented and prolific poet Carla Scarano D’Antonio titled Workwear. I’ve given it a well-deserved hot review, do take a look….
Workwear
By Carla Scarano D’Antonio
Published by The High Window
This exciting new collection entices us with a stunning painting of clothes on the front cover by Irene D’Antonio
Divided into four sections, we have the feeling of going through a drawer full of deceptively soft items.
We are welcomed by In the beginning, an italic textured piece full of human study, a good prelude to greeting Work clothes, an interesting heading in itself.
Something so every day and yet it’s not, and presented to us in an array of inspiring structures. Judith is a detailed account of a powerful woman, and Rembrandt at Kenwood House is so intricately detailed and we feel the artist standing next to us. How would I dress for my death? is so personal to the point of pain. To My first boyfriend unravels the lengths of how a teenager would change herself for love. The necklace tells us between the lines that this was a family treasure.
A new me is a favourite, backlashing against how mature women should dress and how the poet’s identity triumphs. Lovely descriptive words.
Meeting my grandmothers, the second section pulls us in straight away. Who do you think you are ? (After C D Wright) draws us in so tightly, with in-depth insight to the poet’s life and unraveling the section that awaits us. The marvellous Meeting my grandmothers describes the hard life these women had, and the steely grip of determination they still carry. Despite everything, they still had happy marriages.
This moves us on nicely to the very stirring My mother. Space to play is nostalgic and has astounding vividness. I particularly loved the words about the grown-up’s double bed, a stirring memory for most of us. The bittersweet picture of a patriarch is painted in My father, back home and guides us into the next piece of his passing in The Angel of Death.
My way of cooking pasta tells us so very much about the poet and the emotions entwined in this staple family dish. Another great favourite is I was pregnant, I was full which is so wonderfully frank with its full account of gynaecology. Nothing is spared in this excellent piece between the professor and the pregnant patient.
Good Friday is touching as two people talk of their lives, and Moving out confronts another milestone of the next generation moving on. Touching. On this emotional level, Valentina, the longest piece in the collection, is a moving account of giving an autistic child a loving home. Although there are issues, we witness the joy of seeing a young woman grow up. Told in impressive and different styles.
The next section Stars and flags focuses on a country very close to the poet’s heart. Don’t be fooled into thinking this will be a gentler selection, it stays consistently on a powerful level. Impressions of Calgary does just that, giving us a fully painted one. Umbrella keeps up the poet’s stunning descriptions. We come to the tense piece Walking home, and the real danger we could all be in and Consider the ear carries such stunning biological detail while being so creative. I would say this is the most varied section of the book. Winter’s ending is simply profound and moving.
Masking faces, the final section, as you would guess by the contemporary title is less nostalgic and focuses the new issues we have today. However, Spanish flu takes us through poignancy and loss with an account of a mother trying to find news of her sons on the Naples docks. I love the feel of her tasting death. So brutal.
A very relevant subject in Cycling solo, and the poet takes us with her on her journey. and Isolation, sums up what we have all been through, and how it has changed us.
You can begin your journey of life anew is facing a new start when the hand of lockdown ceased and we were still blinking in the harsh light. The lesser loss has a vibrant consistency and compulsive rhyme.
Apocalypse is a powerful epilogue and the right way for us to leave this amazing collection.
Do not let this powerful book get away. Available at
My return to Tenby for the pamphlet launch is looming, and I was taken with poet Trisha Broomfield’s terrific piece on packing. Not only is this beautifully written, it’s also so relevant to me and my current packing.
Sad, wistful, nostalgic and very amusing contents are listed here. Not to mention how high maintenance we get as the years shed away. Do have a look and see how it strikes a chord;
Rucksacks and Other Packs
I was always happy to pack my rucksack;
socks, t-shirts, teabags, toothbrush,
Stergene and Silverkrin, in sachets,
clothes old, rolled, rollers, spare boots and vest,
(really) foot cream, hand cream, brushes, paperbacks,
I’m not a Kindle lover, notebooks and pens,
(I like to write real).
now I pack a host of ‘in case’s in my case,
which weighs more than my trusty rucksack ever did,
just because it can.
02/11/2022Trisha Broomfield
Wasn’t that a marvellous piece of writing?! And so true! Thank you so much, Trisha, keep them coming. That will be all my contents in a poor groaning suitcase this week..
Thanks for tuning in, PL’s. We’ll be back with more poetry action (from Wales) real soon…..
I simply have to share my new discovery of the Torriano Meeting House in Kentish Town. The home of so much innovative poetry, and many wonderful poets. A place I only heard about but never thought I’d enter…
A night organised by superhero poet Julian Bishop (he neglected to bring his cape and mask!), so us SKEGS online group could get together, and I fell in love with this bijou venue on first sight
I finally embraced four of our lovely online members face to face:
The beautiful, amazing Charlotte Baldwin
The powerful and enigmatic Sarah Perillo
The gifted and very moving Vanessa Lampert
And the man himself, the talented Julian Bishop
Not quite sure who this pushy poet was, or who invited her.
We were joined by two wonderful open micers – the fabulous Dan Kennedy (above right) and a lovely poet called Tom (I didn’t get your last name, Tom, forgive me). And I knew them both!
Superb poems were read, which included rabbits, moths, ice cream from Clifton Village, and Ramsgate. Plus Julian’s magnificent eco-poems, especially Serendipity which has now been shortlisted for the Morrab Library Competition. Well done!
And even better is that I will be returning on 4th December to read with the wonderful and enigmatic Wendy Young. What a birthday treat that will be!
Thank you so much, my lovely SKEGS friends for this super evening. Thanks also to Penny for taking this photo and running such a wonderful place.
Thanks for tuning in, PL’s and sharing my Sunday night adventure. We’ll be back with more poetry action real soon…….
aka rhymes_n_roses has summed this up so beautifully. I hope that I have sketched it justifiably. 
I have tried to capture that. Followed by a Christmas alphabet poem which I had to struggle with. 
This all added to the vibrancy of the poetry read, and Celine’s Salon volume 2 anthology selling really well. 
I’ve always been a bit infatuated with this celebration and love seeing images of the food Americans serve up. So much food groaning on a table, served with love 
Which as we know, is the ultimate nostalgic corner. 
Lovers 
is so personal to the point of pain. To My first boyfriend unravels the lengths of how a teenager would change herself for love. The necklace tells us between the lines that this was a family treasure. 
Heather Moulson 