by Helen Ivory | Dec 29, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Twelve Days of Christmas
The Ninth Day It could have been any day—you in the doorway one hand in your pocket one still on the wheel the road: a fluster of birds your daughter: at one end lick- ing her wounds you at the other Lord of the Doorway—but it...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 28, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Twelve Days of Christmas
Redbreast hawk-bait fool of a bird, top-branch, easy pick-off; careless busker; lonely crowd-pleaser, air-ruffled; one long itch and riff of song; leafless pitcher, head-turner, tuned in to tree-top maps of competitors; Mr Tomato-Soup-On-A-Stick,...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 27, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Twelve Days of Christmas
Advice To One Who Is Single A Golden Shovel ‘True love. Is it normal? Is it serious? Is it practical? What does the world get, Warrior? Two people who exist in a world of their own.’ From The Celtic Book of Days The last night in...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 26, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Twelve Days of Christmas
Muscle Memory Three weeks earlier I’d said My dad has Alzheimer’s to the sashed woman in the porch who swept me past the kiosk through the transept to the vestry. The first time I’d said it aloud: I sounded older, as if I knew just what you...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 25, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Twelve Days of Christmas
Nest of Christmas The lane flows with the light of Christmas morning that feels like a yolk breaking, maybe because we are breaking the world’s shell. It lights up single spider webs like silver silk and my dog leads the way through frosty mud. My...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 24, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Twelve Days of Christmas
It’s the most Raymond’s kids loved going round the neighbours with all the fancy lights. In November Raymond’s kids started to ask questions, drop hints. He put a Wanted on the local Stuff For Nothing Facebook page and got loads of odds and sods...
