Katherine Mansfield biographer and poet Kathleen Jones is the editor on NZ-based Tuesday Poem this week, and she's selected Dylan Thomas' classic A Child's Christmas in Wales - read by the poet himself, courtesy of youtube. In the sidebar, there are a host of other celebratory poems written or chosen bt the thirty Tuesday Poets from NZ, Australia, the UK and the US. You can find Roethke and Wordsworth cheek by jowl with Tim Jones and Kathleen Jones (unrelated). On choosing Thomas for the TP hub, Kathleen says:
Wherever you are and whatever you believe, Christmas has become a kind of universal festival for sharing with friends, giving gifts and remembering those who aren't quite so fortunate.
In the Middle East, our Muslim neighbours celebrated with us (and we celebrated Eidd with them), and this year we're invited to share the day with Israeli friends in Italy (it's Hannukkah at the moment). There are also Scandinavian and Dutch communities in Pietrasanta and they celebrate different things on different days and, back home in northern England, the Solstice festival will be in full swing because the 21st is the day when the sun begins its long journey back towards summer.
So it was very important to me to find a piece of poetry both gloriously festive and also inclusive. Much rummaging about in books and Google! Then, suddenly, it became clear. One of my great childhood memories is listening to Dylan Thomas's 'A Child's Christmas in Wales'. As an adult I loved reading it to my own children, and I thought that it would be nice to share it with you all. Poetry as story-telling, language as music, rooted in the old Welsh oral tradition.
So it was very important to me to find a piece of poetry both gloriously festive and also inclusive. Much rummaging about in books and Google! Then, suddenly, it became clear. One of my great childhood memories is listening to Dylan Thomas's 'A Child's Christmas in Wales'. As an adult I loved reading it to my own children, and I thought that it would be nice to share it with you all. Poetry as story-telling, language as music, rooted in the old Welsh oral tradition.
Tuesday Poem thanks everyone who's visited the blog this year and supported the community of poets - not least Bookman Beattie who posts a link every Tuesday. Merry Christmas!!
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