Poetry Jam

I had a great couple of hours today at the Poetry Jam in Marsden, part of the Jazz Festival.  It was completely packed, and there was lots of excellent poetry, in a wide range of different styles, all expertly compered by the indefatigable Julian Jordon from Write Out Loud (pictured – sorry about the poor quality).  Here’s one of the two poems I read:

 

Christmas Card Friends

Do my words hang in corners

by snow-covered trees

and the unremarked faces of angels?

Do you look for my messages,

old secrets gift-wrapped in rhyme?

 

I choose pictures with meanings

and couplets that recast the spell.

I send you magic:

you send me ‘Joyeux Noel’.

 

I share the same greeting

with old friends from school

whom you pass in the street without knowing

yet my lips touch the rubber-stamped

crosses that never touched yours.

 

Long ago, we were lovers;

for me, even old love transcends

the dead sheets of paper

that pass between Christmas card friends.