Sunday 13 December 2015

Presents

Dear Reader,



This is the last blog and poem I am producing in 2015.  I will return on Sunday 3rd of January 2016, and hope you will all re-join me then.  Thank you so much for any reading of my poems, and my musings, that you have done since July when I started writing my blog, not really knowing whether it would be a success or not.  But with the incredible advances of technology I can see where you, the readers, are coming from - and you are far and wide, in fact from all over the world, and I am very grateful to you.  As I told you in my introduction, poetry is not a popular art, but that some faithful, and some new readers, seem to access my blog gives me enormous pleasure and makes me think I should continue posting it next year.  So until Sunday 3rd January, when I return, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy New Year, whatever you are doing and whichever way you celebrate this festival.                                        


                                                                              *

I posted this poem in July this year but think it is my most appropriate Christmas message, so apologies if you remember it, and for those who didn't see it, here it is.


Presents

I don't want presents
tied and ribboned.
Encouragement doesn't wrap
well in green tissue,
praise in paisley boxes
or love in thick gold paper.
I don't want guilt
compressed into an envelope
with cheque.

A parcel of thoughtfulness,
a parcel of interest,
a parcel of embracing,
a parcel of safety, were
the presents I hoped for
under the festive tree.
The presents I hoped for
which were not to be.
                                                                        *


I like this quote from Thoreau  and thought you might too:

                                                      If a man does not keep pace
                                                      with his companions,
                                                      perhaps it is because he hears
                                                      a different drummer.
                                                      Let him step to the music he hears,
                                                      however measured or far away.

Very best wishes,  Patricia

1 comment: