Poem: Comfort and Joy: a reminiscence
Books & Poetry
In this week’s Poet’s Corner, Adelaide contributor Michele Slatter takes a nostalgic look at a wintry northern Christmas.
Comfort and Joy: a reminiscence
Suffolk, 1978
Bleak midwinter. Wind from the steppes
sears the greyscale landscape with bone chilling cold.
Black skeleton trees bend to its will.
Rain-dark fields stretch in all directions
to puddled ditches, leafless quickthorn and rutted lanes.
A solitary sentinel crow patrols the barn roof. Nothing to report.
Daylight wavers. The sun is hidden, held hostage
behind gunmetal clouds.
Will it be out for Christmas?
Hail is forecast.
Against this monochrome world
windows reveal a cottage kitchen in Kodachrome.
Blue and white plates, green stove, red pans,
oak shelves glinting with copper and brass,
quaint, cramped, busy. Today, Gingernuts
is holding court from the imperial purple cushion
on the bentwood rocker.
His feline gaze is firmly on the table
whose stripped pine peeps out
from a chaos of bowls and bottles and holly and ham.
Pans bubble, something bakes.
The warm scents of celebration enfold us,
a comforter, a patchwork of exotic spices, garden herbs,
continental liquor and onions from down the road.
The two of us scribble cards,
slurp drinks and sort through the sprouts.
We’re cooking with gas!
It’s hot: oven’s on, hob’s on, fire’s on.
It’s light: golden, unshadowed, defying winter’s gloom.
It’s loud: King’s College carols soar behind our laughter.
It’s cosy. It’s Christmas Eve
and all our trifling cares evaporate
like brandy off a pudding.
Michele Slatter lives in Adelaide. Educated at Durham University and University College London, she is a semi-retired law academic who has written extensively in her professional life and continues to undertake consultancy and research. Now, however, she also has time for the adventure of writing both prose and poetry purely for enjoyment. She is a member of several active writers’ groups, online and face-to-face, and regularly reads at Friendly Street Poets.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.
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