Brian Kirk's Blog

I haven’t blogged in a while due to pressure of work and all things Christmassy piling up around me. So as an apology, and as a gift to anyone who stops by, I give you my Christmas villanelle When we were small.

When we were small

 

The thing we loved the most when we were small

was opening our presents in the dark;

the days were short, the tree was very tall

 

and from bright paper fell a new football

or cars that raced on magic that made sparks.

The thing we loved the most when we were small

 

was waking up our parents with our calls

of “Santy’s come! Wake up!” The dog would bark,

the days were short, the tree was very tall

 

when we believed that God cared for us all

and angels urged us shepherds still to hark

to things we loved the most when we were small.

 

This is the way we live after the fall,

grown up in knowledge but by faith unmarked.

The days were short, the tree was very tall

 

when we accepted God was all in all

and Christmas was the time we chose to mark

the things we loved the most when we were small,

when days were short, the tree was very tall.

 

It was a good year all in all, from a writing point of view. I made some hard decisions about a big project that was going nowhere and made a fresh start to another novel. The highlights were being a part of Poetry Ireland Introductions and reading a short story at Listowel Writers’ Week. You can see  details of everything that I published in 2013 and some other bits here. It was also an important year for poetry particularly because I joined the Hibernian Poets in September and have already learned loads. They are incredibly talented bunch of poets who bring so much to each workshop and yet they make you feel at home and encourage you to make your work better and better, not to settle for anything less than the best a poem can be. I look forward to sharing more time with them in 2014.

I hope 2013 was good to you and wish you all a happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

 

 

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