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...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 23, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Twelve Days of Christmas
Time of year Mistletoe hung by the front door and you had to kiss whoever was standing under it. That was one of the Christmas rules like watching the Queen at 3 o’clock. It was the uncles with wet mouths that she didn’t like. How did they do it?...
