Please bear with me , this blog isn’t turning into one of those’ a poem a day ‘type desk calenders . In fact I am a hethan with anything to do with poetry or English Lit. – at the age of 14 having been forced to read Northanger Abbey and Julius Caesar for 2 years rote fashion with no pleasure factor thrown in , I had all love of the subject , bored out of me. ( can’t even keep up with Middlemarch on the TV ). However Jacob and Rosie both got A’s in English Lit and Florence loves poetry …and John knows all the words to ‘The fields of Athenry’. On the morning of the 21st Dec.08 Florence read Thomas Hardy poems to Rosie. who kept the book by her bed. Anyway , today I went out for a lovely walk in the pouring rain , with Emma, to Kew Gardens- there were more people in the shop and the cafe than the whole of the gardens. Emma gave me a beautiful book ‘The Twelve Poems of Christmas’ and this poem made me think of Rosie
December Carol Ann Duffy
The year dwindles and glows to December’s red jewel,my birth month.
The sky blushes’and lays its cheek on the sparkling fields.
The dusk swaddles the cattle, their silhouettes simple as faith.
These nights are gifts, our hands unwrapping the darkness to see what we have.
the train rushes, ecstatic,to where you are, my bright star.