Amongst It All
In amongst the last-minute panic,
The present-buying, the sellotape sourcing,
The list-ticking-offing and second-class stamping,
In amongst the vile weather,
The freezing fog and endless rain,
Flooded beer gardens, tornadoes in Chertsey,
In amongst the decorations,
The strings of cards, the tinsel and trees,
And Squeezebox, amongst the biscuits and cheese,
In amongst the parties, and goodwill to all men,
And a hundred thousand prawn hor d’ouevres,
Amongst the friends, families and festivities,
The board games and bold claims and bad jokes and good songs
And strong drinks and halfpints,
In amongst the cocktails and chocolates,
In amongst the illnesses, colds and coughs,
Hot toddies, Lemsips, dumplings and broths,
Amongst the TV, films, football, that bloody election,
In amongst the excitement, the panic, the terror,
In amongst the darkness (did I mention the weather?)
In amongst the emotion, the love and the loss
And the hope and the fear and the end of the year
And the end of the decade and the start of the next,
In amongst everything,
I found
this.
I realised earlier today that I’ve been doing the countdown at the bottom of each day’s blog wrong. I’ve been counting down to Christmas Day, when really I should be counting down to Christmas Eve, which is technically when Advent ends. Although my own actual Advent Calendar this year has a door on the 25th, so maybe that’s where I went wrong. I hope this doesn’t mean I need to write an extra poem…
Incidentally, I was watching something the other night (possibly Inside The Factory with Gregg Wallace, though don’t quote me on that) that explained the history of the Advent Calendar, and how initially Advent was supposed to begin on the fourth Sunday before the 25th, and so wouldn’t necessarily be any set length from year to year, the date of the start of Advent shifting, like Easter. Producing Advent Calendars, therefore, became a bit of a bugger, so they soon just started providing 24 day ones, which allowed manufacturers to use the same basic template every year. Canny. Thus it transpired that Advent became the 24 days before Christmas, and started – every year without fail – on the 1st December.
Nice little history lesson there. Thanks Big Gregg.
I can’t really remember where I was going with this, but basically, we’re three days away from Christmas and everything’s a bit crazy. In a good way, as well as a stressful way. Today, for example, my quiz team had a bit of a get-together, a Christmas lunch that seemed to be ninety-percent shellfish (team name) and a game of Trivial Pursuit Music Edition (basically the same format but to get a cheese you have to try and guess the name of various slightly racist songs from an accompanying CD…) This followed yesterday, which saw a whirlwind Christmas Shopping trip to Oxford, and Friday, which involved a community Christmas cook-up, where I defied all expectations to produce a sprout, chestnut and pancetta stir-fry (see below.) As I say, it’s been quite busy, and I don’t even have a job right now.
So basically today’s Door is about the search for inspiration amongst this blizzard of busyness, and indeed illness (although nothing a hearty meal of chicken and garlic can’t solve (hopefully)), where trying to come up with some festive verse plays about fourteenth fiddle to everything else. This is quite a long-winded way of admitting that I’m aware today’s poem isn’t great, but at least it covers a lot of ground.
Thanks to Paolo Soro who took today’s photo. And thank you, again, to everyone who has donated money so far to Crisis through the Poetry Advent Calendar JustGiving page – we’re past the £600 mark now, so my deepest gratitude to every contributor so far.
After all that… How long’s left? Three days to go… Ish…
Owen x
The Poetry Advent Calendar 