During the Olympic and Paralympic games our Poetry Champions groups around the country read the Winning Words anthology and shared their views on the poems. To round off the project we’ve asked our groups to suggest poems and books they’ve enjoyed reading which have a Christmas or winter theme.
Grays Friday Poetry Group
We recently read a Christmas story called The gift of the Magi by O. Henry. It’s all about true love and how comic things can be between a husband and his wife.
One poem we liked is The Barn by Elizabeth Coatsworth. It’s a children’s poem but it’s the Christmas story from the viewpoint of the animals in the barn. It’s a comforting read which brings a real warm glow to the heart, especially at this time of year.
Not Scary Poetry Group
We had this round up from Karen Winyard about what her group has been reading and which were their particular favourites.
We take poetry for granted at Christmas don’t we? There’s poetry wherever you turn, in songs and on cards, playing in every shop and restaurant, sung in every church. Yet so few poems really capture Christmas for me. It’s hard to avoid the pitfalls of sentimentality and slush. I love Christmas, it is the one bright spot in this dreary, end of the cycle season that we all have to trudge through with heads bowed and hands-stuffed-in- pockets-weariness in order to come full circle to spring again. I revel in the magic and power of of this one last firework burst of joy before we dig ourselves in for winter.
Which poems do the Not Scary Poetry folk treasure at Christmas? That was a tough one. Sheila Brunt has a soft spot for Pam Ayres, A Modern Christmas, Where’s the Magic?. Quite simply, Sheila enjoys Ayre’s down to earth wit.
Corinne Moore suggests U A Fanthorpe’s Christmas Poems, particularly The Wicked Fairy at the Manger, though Sue Hardstaff prefers What the Donkey Saw and I like Nativities.
Then Diane King and I are both fans of T S Eliot and his iconic Journey of the Magi would have to be on our list of favourite Christmas poems. I do love Simon Armitage’s White Christmas which superbly sidesteps any sentimentality and tells it how it is; and although I don’t much care for Christina Rossetti her In the Bleak Midwinter is my favourite carol.
For its sheer absurdity and evocation of that Lewis Carroll feeling that you’re running as hard as ever you can but only succeeding in staying in the same place that trying to keep on top of Christmas preparations brings I always revisit an old childhood favourite, Spike Milligan’s I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas, complete with silly voice.
Corinne gave me the section of The Times Saturday Review from December 15 for inspiration and I do like Gillian Clarke’s The Year’s Midnight and Walter de la Mare’s Mistletoe from Carol Ann Duffy’s selection. But, for me, the poem which really says Christmas, and which I don’t think was actually intended as a Christmas poem, though I may be wrong about that, is e e cummings’ it is winter a moon in the afternoon.
Get involved
Have you read a poem or story that warmed you up on a cold winter’s day? Please tell us about it in the comment box below.
If you’re looking for a good book to read this Christmas take a look at this list of recommended reads from The Reading Agency staff.
