Poetry review – STAR: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch reviews a collection of Christmas poems by Angela Graham
Star: poems for the Christmas Season
Angela Graham
Culture & Democracy Press
available at this site
ISBN: 978-1068694608
56pp £10
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The epigraph to Angela Graham’s collection Star: poems for the Christmas Season immediately draws our attention to the fact this season encompasses quite a long time period: from Advent, which usually starts in late November/early December through to Christmas, then to New Year and finally the Epiphany on 6th January, traditionally the date when the three kings arrived at the stable.
The epigraph’s title “Christmas Resolution” neatly puts us in mind of New Year’s resolutions and seems simultaneously to act as wish and prayer, encouraging each of us ‘to be/given as a newborn;/my simplest, giving, self’. At a time of year when there is so much emphasis on shopping and spending, it’s refreshing to read poems that encourage us to meditate on the meaning of the gift of self. During the course of this collection Graham leads us to wonder about how we might give more of ourselves to others, by being of service to them or by sharing our talents, time and energy rather than by buying unwanted objects as presents. The idea of the gift of self to others and of aiming to show compassion for others is something that is threaded throughout this collection, especially in the poem “In the Shopping Arcades”. It’s a compelling exhortation no matter which faith background any of us live by.
One of the most striking aspects of Graham’s book is its willingness to keep the human experience to the fore, and in so doing she avoids slipping into trite observations about Christmas: for example in the poem “December” Graham looks unflinchingly at what it’s like to give birth in an out-house (‘his hoodie covered in her blood’, ‘among the tractor parts and oil cans’). The speaker of this poem goes on to note with compassion the possibility that this baby’s parents might be refugees; and so there is a little echo here with the Biblical Christmas story as Mary and Joseph were travelling away from home at the time when their son was born, and all three then had to travel elsewhere to find a place to call home.
Handled with equal delicacy in “Melchior” is the exploration of the petty jealousy of King Herod which of course had an impact on the lives of thousands of male children under the age of two, all of whom had to be killed to satisfy Herod’s fear that the baby he’d heard about might one day be king. In contrast to Herod’s fear, the baby’s mother we are told ‘refused to let fear rule her’ (in “Balthazar”). Refusing to live in a state of fear could be seen as an inspirational modus operandi when faced by unpredictable world events.
The dramatic monologues in the centre of this collection are spoken in the voice of the partners of each of the three wise men. The monologues deftly make us think about what it must have been like to have a partner who followed a star. This in turn leads us as readers to reflect on what it might mean for each of us to follow our own star or guiding light, and to meditate on what that guiding light might be.
There are some gorgeous portraits of winter weather: in “Reading Christmas Poems” the moon is ‘a plate of ice propped on a high high shelf’; in “Rescue” Graham has some mesmerising lines describing ‘the darkness gathering itself together under the conifers’ and in the same poem tells how ‘the cold is set like a trap.’
At the end of a year where the relentlessness of news about war on different fronts shows little sign of slowing down, Graham’s book offers us a moment to pause and reflect on one keyword related to Advent, hope (which appears in both the first and final poems) and on another word associated with Christmas, joy (the speaker of the poem “Autun Cathedral, Magi” encourages us to ‘seize the chance of joy’); and she paints cameos of both hopeful and joyful situations we might encounter at this time of the year.
As we follow the various characters through the Christmas season, it becomes clear that this collection is as much an exploration of what the inner guiding star might be for each of us as it is a meditation on the sweep of the stars above us. By the end of the book we move beyond Christmas into a new year in two poems that reflect on light in the darkness and on new beginnings. Uplifting and heartfelt, this is a collection whose craft will make it a pleasure to go back to year after year.
Dec 7 2024
London Grip Poetry Review – Angela Graham
Poetry review – STAR: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch reviews a collection of Christmas poems by Angela Graham
The epigraph to Angela Graham’s collection Star: poems for the Christmas Season immediately draws our attention to the fact this season encompasses quite a long time period: from Advent, which usually starts in late November/early December through to Christmas, then to New Year and finally the Epiphany on 6th January, traditionally the date when the three kings arrived at the stable.
The epigraph’s title “Christmas Resolution” neatly puts us in mind of New Year’s resolutions and seems simultaneously to act as wish and prayer, encouraging each of us ‘to be/given as a newborn;/my simplest, giving, self’. At a time of year when there is so much emphasis on shopping and spending, it’s refreshing to read poems that encourage us to meditate on the meaning of the gift of self. During the course of this collection Graham leads us to wonder about how we might give more of ourselves to others, by being of service to them or by sharing our talents, time and energy rather than by buying unwanted objects as presents. The idea of the gift of self to others and of aiming to show compassion for others is something that is threaded throughout this collection, especially in the poem “In the Shopping Arcades”. It’s a compelling exhortation no matter which faith background any of us live by.
One of the most striking aspects of Graham’s book is its willingness to keep the human experience to the fore, and in so doing she avoids slipping into trite observations about Christmas: for example in the poem “December” Graham looks unflinchingly at what it’s like to give birth in an out-house (‘his hoodie covered in her blood’, ‘among the tractor parts and oil cans’). The speaker of this poem goes on to note with compassion the possibility that this baby’s parents might be refugees; and so there is a little echo here with the Biblical Christmas story as Mary and Joseph were travelling away from home at the time when their son was born, and all three then had to travel elsewhere to find a place to call home.
Handled with equal delicacy in “Melchior” is the exploration of the petty jealousy of King Herod which of course had an impact on the lives of thousands of male children under the age of two, all of whom had to be killed to satisfy Herod’s fear that the baby he’d heard about might one day be king. In contrast to Herod’s fear, the baby’s mother we are told ‘refused to let fear rule her’ (in “Balthazar”). Refusing to live in a state of fear could be seen as an inspirational modus operandi when faced by unpredictable world events.
The dramatic monologues in the centre of this collection are spoken in the voice of the partners of each of the three wise men. The monologues deftly make us think about what it must have been like to have a partner who followed a star. This in turn leads us as readers to reflect on what it might mean for each of us to follow our own star or guiding light, and to meditate on what that guiding light might be.
There are some gorgeous portraits of winter weather: in “Reading Christmas Poems” the moon is ‘a plate of ice propped on a high high shelf’; in “Rescue” Graham has some mesmerising lines describing ‘the darkness gathering itself together under the conifers’ and in the same poem tells how ‘the cold is set like a trap.’
At the end of a year where the relentlessness of news about war on different fronts shows little sign of slowing down, Graham’s book offers us a moment to pause and reflect on one keyword related to Advent, hope (which appears in both the first and final poems) and on another word associated with Christmas, joy (the speaker of the poem “Autun Cathedral, Magi” encourages us to ‘seize the chance of joy’); and she paints cameos of both hopeful and joyful situations we might encounter at this time of the year.
As we follow the various characters through the Christmas season, it becomes clear that this collection is as much an exploration of what the inner guiding star might be for each of us as it is a meditation on the sweep of the stars above us. By the end of the book we move beyond Christmas into a new year in two poems that reflect on light in the darkness and on new beginnings. Uplifting and heartfelt, this is a collection whose craft will make it a pleasure to go back to year after year.