Our Christmas poem by Tina Baker was inspired by overhearing a woman saddened by the dwindling number of Christmas cards she received each year. It is a poem for those who still love the tradition and ritual of sending and receiving them, especially the elderly.
Tina’s poetry is often inspired by the theme of memories, and the power they have, whether good or bad. She also writes short stories and was surprised and delighted to be short listed for the Stroud Short Story competition in 2020. Another love is play writing and one of her plays, a comedy, has been aired on Corinium Radio. On the back burner is a completed novel awaiting its fourth redraft.
When she is not reading or writing, Tina spends her time walking in the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside and trying to tame her garden.
To read Tina’s poem ‘Relics’ go to cirenscene.com.
You can read more work by local writers at somewhere-else-writers.org.
Relics
By Tina Baker
Merry Christmas, a silver-tongued sentiment,
a recycled photo of a winter scene.
A flock of sheep captured tight to a low stone wall, lichen clinging powder green,
the blizzard biting harder than the dog
at their fleece bare legs.
Snow backed, black-faced,
no pushy greedy lambs of spring
these tough as mutton types,
heads turned forty-five degrees,
haughty faces eyeing the camera.
She places the card on the mantle;
the only one received,
all others sacrificed to save the world
like Jesus on the cross.
She mourns the death of the Christmas card,
misses their company;
those which stood out from the crowd
and those that would not stand,
the cheerful and the sombre
all welcome in her home.
Twelve days after Christmas
she would re read each one,
then store them in a box;
portraits of friendships,
landscapes of memories.
The flock stare from the mantle,
winter hardened.
Ache old, she knows life, and death,
understands that all things fade
but it seems to her,
the planet now takes more than it gives.
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