Poetry Archives - Savour the Moment

31 December 2018

A New Year message from Savour the Moment

An explosion of colourful fireworks above the Edinburgh skyline taken in 2015 by Eric Richardson

Hope… for the New Year

A New Year message from Savour the Moment

The beginning of a new year is a time of resolutions and fresh starts. Dark, winter days can make staying positive very difficult. But for now, we have hope.

‘Once you choose hope, anything’s possible’.

Actor Christopher Reeve

Dark days

Written in 1908 a poem was brought to the attention of King George VI in 1939, when the days were very dark indeed. He included it in his radio broadcast to the empire. Who knows what the New Year holds for us? It is so full of uncertainty. Here is that poem, a message of hope for us all.

The Gate of the Year

by Minnie Louise Haskins

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

New Year fireworks Photo credit: Eric Richardson — New Year fireworks
Photo credit: Eric Richardson

Happy New Year…

and as the comedian Dave Allen, popular in the 1970s famously said: ‘May your god go with you’.

12 August 2018

The Book Club

A new book shop opened in town just before Christmas last year ‘The Barrister’s Bookchamber’ https://barristersbookchamber.com/ This shop has a very interesting, unique and Dickensian style. It sells all kinds of books: antique, vintage, used, old, secondhand, paperbacks, hardbacks, fact and fiction in fact you name it and they probably have a copy of it… yes, even ‘Fly Fishing’ by J R Hartley.

The shop is Angela Rowntree’s baby, a barrister herself, who wanted to recreate the feel of a genuine Victorian barrister’s chamber just like her own used to be.

The opening of the new establishment was a Dickensian affair too with Ebenezer Scrooge ‘greeting’ the constant stream of intrigued townsfolk. All books very reasonably priced so a purchase had to be made. I knew my son would love the very old and battered copy of ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Ebenezer Scrooge at the opening of the original book shop

The look of the shop has been very thoughtfully put together and the atmosphere is cosy, warm and inviting – particularly as it has a tea room which sells the most amazing cakes. The urge to sit a while to stay and read is irresistible.

A search on Facebook found their page and very quickly the Bookchamber was posting about writing and poetry workshops, children’s book-themed parties, as well as guest author events and eventually the announcement that the Barrister’s Bookchamber was to start its own Book Club. First meeting to be held early in the New Year. Was I interested? Yes, I was.

An all-female group (although a man has subsequently joined us) turned up from diverse backgrounds and with varied tastes in literature. Introductions over, the first book was chosen ‘The Collector’ by John Fowles. I think it would be safe to say that the following month, the group was fairly evenly split on their appraisal of the book, it was a bit – Marmite! We have just had our August meeting to discuss ‘1984’ by George Orwell – it turned into a lively, political debate with some incredible insights and comparisons. In between we have read Oscar Wilde, Gail Honeyman, Clare Douglas, Fiona Barton and Marian Keyes – an eclectic selection. I think the only book we have unanimously enjoyed together is ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman, which seems to be every book club’s read of the moment.

It was as we discussed the latter that I came clean and confessed that I had not actually read the book but that I had listened to it on ‘Audible’ https://www.audible.co.uk/ Audible is a guilty pleasure of mine, it means I can ‘get lost’ without having to sit down or go to bed! I can walk for miles, do the ironing, clean the bathroom, cook, bake – enjoy two pleasures at the same time! I had expected hands to be thrown up in horror but they weren’t, in fact it was no big deal. Don’t misunderstand me, I do love ‘actual books’ and I do read ‘actual books’ but ever since childhood, I have loved being read to and enjoy just… listening.

The Book Club has introduced me to new people, new books, new views and even new friends… and a shop full of amazing books, which I can either listen to or read.

2 August 20182 August 2018

A Snapshot in Time

This image keeps popping back into my head even though I took it well over a year ago.

We were on a camping trip with my son, Luke and his family to Clapton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire. The campsite, owned and run by an elderly lady, was dominated along one side by a big, old, dark brown barn. Some of the slats were slipping, leaving just enough space for an iPhone to take aim. It was late evening, the sun was sinking and a blackbird sang. It was as though each object in the barn had been specifically placed in order to create this composition.

A look through a peephole into an old barn

I can tell you know more, it is just a snapshot in time. Another moment to savour, it reminded me of:

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas (about a Gloucestershire village station):

Yes. I remember Adlestrop

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat, the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.