T is for Tinsel and Twigs

Cherry

By Di_Hard

Sun, 19 Dec 2021
  • 1460 reads
11 comments
 

plastic starlight glinting

galaxies on a thread

 

buds on tree-tips hinting

wild faith in Spring ahead

Certificate U
Poem
Advent Alphabet (plus Boxing day)

Comments

Submitted by Turlough on

You really make your words do the work. So few of them describe so much.

I really like the plastic starlight bit

I've never been a fan of tinsel but I'm looking at it in a different way now.

and 

wild faith in Spring ahead

sums up the stuff that's whirring around in my little mind at this time of year.

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

thankyou for saying about the plastic starlight. I know what you mean about tinsel regarding the modern stuff - it is a bit um Trumpian, but I LOVE  tinsel from about 20 years ago, much finer and sort of crunchy, not the glittering trophy tails of some kind of sparklebeast which hang in bundles in every shop as soon as all the plastic sawn off arms etc are taken down from Halloween :0) 

Our first Christmas here, a few weeks before our son ws born, I went looking for old fashioned tinsel. In the post office they had some, delicate. It was cheaper than the bushier stuff but I could still only afford two pieces, but when I told the lady at the till about wanting to have a pretty tree for when our baby came, and being so happy to have found their tinsel,  she said I could have one of every colour! I worked in a shop too then, and it was all sell! sell! sell! I remember her kindness every year I put up the tinsel. It made such a HUGE  difference to me, as we were so broke, and the tinsel was so sparkly, all the colours together so rich, it was ultimate luxury, but also it was the welcoming, the kindness?  It was the only time I saw that lady working there. The next year the post office just had the same sort of  tinsel everywhere else has. So, for me, it was magical :0)

Thankyou again for reading and commenting, it is so kind of you! Have you got a selection of catalogues for plants and seeds to cheer you up?

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Your words …

plastic sawn off arms

really made me laugh.

Sawn off arms of any kind shouldn’t make us laugh but I know exactly what you mean.

Good on your lady in the post office for giving you the tinsel. It’s nice how Christmas can bring out kindness in people, many of which I am sure are kind all year round but it takes a Christmas for it to manifest itself. I just wish that people would be more kind to each other all year round. I’ve worked in shops and pubs at Christmas in the past and found that the kind people become kinder and the gitbags get gitbaggier, so I suppose it all balances itself out.

We don’t seem to have catalogues in Bulgaria, which might seem a bit sad, but also we don’t have free newspapers or letterbox flyers from Domino Pizza, UKIP or people trying to sell conservatories. We have a couple of plant nurseries nearby but most of our new stock we grow from seeds or cuttings that we have gathered or stolen from the countryside or floral displays around town.

I’m very happy really but thank you for your concern. I just find it easier to write if I’ve got something to moan about.

I’m happy, hope you’re happy too … as David Bowie would say.

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

am glad I made you laugh :0) I am enjoying thinking about you on plant stealing missions to municipal flowerr beds, hiding behind lamp posts, or reaching out of litterbins with a pair of secateurs

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

It's nice to see the buds, isn't it, and to notice when they begin to swell.

Glinting tinsel can be cheering while we wait in the darkness, I guess! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou Rhiannon :0) Yes! There are buds on all sorts of things in the woods, though the moss and lichen are so bright green it is like broken glass, and they sparkle like anything after rain, not to mention the cobwebs! But couldn't get all that in :0)

Thankyou for reading and commenting, I love your comments

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Love those last two lines Di...said it all for me.

Hope Your Christmas Is Bright And Cheery, And Wishing You A Healthy, Happy New Year.

Jenny. smiley

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I hope you have a Wonderful Christmas with everything you hope for in the New Year :0)

Thankyou very much for reading and your lovely comment, take care of yourself

XXX

 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

Di Hard, that lady in the Post Office must have been an angel! I've been that broke too and am down to my last beans now. One year, I had only £1 in my purse. I stayed in and wrote four letters to go in Christmas cards I couldn't afford to post. Then the post came (the days of 2nd deliveries) and a kind friend had sent me a card - with four stamps inside! I loved the short simplicity of this poem and those words wild faith, both challenging and reassuring.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

What a brilliant friend, to guess that's what you needed!

I have always thought the lady in the post office might have been an angel, too :0) I can't remember what day it was, might even have been Christmas Eve, it was dark and there was no one else in the post office, whjich is unusual before Christmas, and I was her last customer.

I hope very much you meet an angel, if you are on your last beans! I wish and wish and wish someone will want to make a film of your poems, like the Hungry Caterpillar, all bright for children, or ask you to write a special script for Christmas and give Julia Donaldson a break.

Thankyou for reading this and your lovely comment, I do hope lots of good things happen for you soon

 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

Thank you! I am used to the lack of beans. Always optimistic. There is a bean tree out there with my name on it. The support you, Airy Fairy and Claudine have given me with the reviews is angel enough! I think there's a definite film/story in your post office experience though, you know! angel