The Year in Review: highs, lows, triumphs and tragedies of 2011

The Year in Review: highs, lows, triumphs and tragedies of 2011   It’s the very last day of the year and I thought I might do a quick run through of how the year has been for me. Travel: countless trips with students to London, Cambridge, Norwich and so on. Enjoyable, as I get time [...]

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Burning

Burning Shall I burn brightly: The flight of a sparrow through The fire-lit glory of the mead-halls from darkness to darkness With that brief passage of brilliant light and heat? Or shall I burn soft and subdued, the banked peat fire through long winter night of huddled homes, Giving only a little but for long [...]

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A fragrance of roses ~ a love-story for Christmas Eve

  A fragrance of roses    The scent of summer wakes me, drifting on the cool night air, and brings me to consciousness again. Roses in fullest bloom, warmed by June sunshine, great old fashioned cabbage-headed flowers that drop petals and trail their heavenly scent throughout the house. But it is late December and amid [...]

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Why I believe in fairies

  I believe in fairies ~ just don’t ask me to define what a fairy actually is! (this article has appeared before but as a guest post. Do forgive me; I’m not lazy, but rather bogged down with depression at the moment.)   Most children stop believing in fairies somewhere in their tweens, if not beforehand. [...]

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The Scent of Christmas ~ an aromatic meditation

The Scent of Christmas ~ an aromatic meditation   The sense of smell is closely connected to the area of the brain that processes emotional memories; sometimes memories are very deeply buried and certain scents can awaken those memories. I am also aware that not all buried memories are good ones, which is why for [...]

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Darkest before Dawn ~ waiting for Sun Return

Darkest before Dawn ~ waiting for Sun Return   In the middle of all the excitement and glitz of the approach of Christmas, I’ve noticed something. My own mood has plummeted to below the bedrock and every task seems to take ten times the effort. I’m tired and feeling generally unwell most of the time [...]

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Man of Straw

Man of Straw   You were a man of straw, Dressed in stolen rags Lonely in a ploughed-up field Bereft of all but crows. I dressed you in a suit of clothes Gave you shoes and voice, A backbone made of wood And a bravely painted face. You took these gifts as your right; Your [...]

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I believe in Father Christmas….

  I believe in Father Christmas   This might sound a peculiar statement from one of my years (I am over forty) but do bear with me on this. My childhood Christmas memories are pretty well all happy ones, and my parents maintained the Father Christmas idea by not putting any decorations or a tree [...]

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Bliss

  Bliss ~ what it feels like and perhaps where it comes from.   It might be because I was reading through some of my notebooks of poetry I’ve never typed up or shared, but I started thinking about bliss. Not that my poetry is filled with bliss. Most of the time it is filled [...]

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Like a Cold Wind

Like a cold wind     Like a cold wind on a summer’s day Raising a crop of goose-flesh; Like a cloud across the sun’s face Turning the day into sudden twilight, I feel the change inside me And I wait to see if the cloud may pass.   Like the sudden silence before a [...]

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