Christmas

The Book Bag Christmas Party

Well as it’s the last weekly entry in The Book Bag of the year, I thought I’d indulge us in a Christmas Party to round off an exceptional year of poetry.

So, we’ve got cocktails, a quiz, a playlist that will suit everyone plus some prompts to get stuck into. Oh and I’ve got a poem to share and other bits and pieces.

Tear the clingfilm from the vol au vents, and let’s dive in.

First, here’s a cocktail from the bar. A Yule Mule.

In a tumbler add:
A good scoop of crushed ice
50ml Vodka
100ml Cranberry Juice
100ml Ginger Beer
50ml Orange Juice

Garnish with:
A Sprig of Rosemary
A few cranberries
A slice of orange

Get comfortable and stay away from Google. Before the music starts and everyone dances like they’ve just discovered movement let’s have a little poetic quiz. Only 15 questions on the topic of poetry:

Who released their debut collection ‘Sculling’ in 2025?

How many lines are in a sonnet?

Complete the title of this collection from Gill Barr,

‘A Wide River_____ __’

Which famous Irish Poet wrote “Digging”?

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light” was written by

A. Dylan Thomas
B. WH Auden
C. TS Eliot

How many words are required for a quadrille?

Who wrote the winter poem Harbinger found in this year’s Christmas / Winter anthology from Black Bough Poetry?

Who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2025?

In which TS Eliot poem does the line “Winter kept us warm” appear?

How many syllables in total are in a standard haiku?

Who was the first Poetic Voice to appear in The Book Bag?

What is the name of my poem in the anthology Rites & Trials, recently published by Broken Spine?

Name the current British Poet Laureate.

What is a quatrain?

How many presents in total would you receive from your true love in the 12 Days of Christmas?

How did you find that? Has it made you hungry?

Why not treat yourself to a snack from the buffet.

There’s a lovely Baileys Christiramisu at the end there. Just make sure Marjorie doesn’t hide it to take later…

Here’s a winter poem for your enjoyment (hopefully).

I’ve given the DJ the nod to start the disco.

Here’s the playlist he will be using. Feel free to offer any more suggestions…

The Pogues Featuring Kirsty McColl — Fairytale of New York
Mariah Carey — All I Want for Christmas Is You
Ariana Grande — Santa Tell Me
Wham! — Last Christmas
Leona Lewis — One More Sleep
Kool & The Gang — Celebration
Chic — Good Times
Dua Lipa — Don’t Start Now
Kylie Minogue — Spinning Around
Lady Gaga & Beyoncé — Telephone
Bruce Springsteen — Dancing In The Dark
Daft Punk — Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams)
Boney M. — Mary’s Boy Child
Slade — Merry Xmas Everybody
Wizzard — I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Shakin’ Stevens — Merry Christmas Everyone
Sia — Candy Cane Lane
Taylor Swift – Ophelia
Cher — DJ Play A Christmas Song
Backstreet Boys — Backstreet’s Back
Chappell Roan — Pink Pony Club
P!nk — Raise A Glass
Whitney Houston — I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Bryan Adams — Summer of ‘69
Queen — Don’t Stop Me Now
Elton John — Step Into Christmas

Who’s worn out? Me too. Time to settle in for a Christmas Film or 2.

The popcorn and spiced almonds are coming around with some Black Forest Hot Chocolates.

We’re starting with The Snowman. And once we’ve shed some winter tears we’ll get joyous with Elf.

What are your favourite lines from Elf? Or are you not even a fan?

Here’s a gift for you all. Three festive poetry prompts to keep you busy.

Snow Globe Nights – write a nighttime piece as if you are stuck inside a snow globe, What’s the scene you’re surrounded by? What’s happening outside the curve? Stick to less than 100 words.

The Joy of Smiles – create a 30-word poem on a smile or smiles of loved ones. Avoid cliche and make it dynamic.

North Star – Inspired by the night sky, craft a free verse poem with the North Star as the central focus point. Make it cosmic and epic in scale with a generous 150 words split into 5 stanzas.

It’s time to zip up The Book Bag for the final time of the year. There is one last gift though. For anyone who missed the submission window for the Unwhispered Legacy anthology. You have until 9pm on Wednesday 17th December 2025 to submit up to 2 pieces. Details on subs here.

I hope to catch some of you at the launch of the Black Bough Christmas Anthology that is happening later today (5pm GMT) – tickets are free and available here.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year To You All

The Book Bag: Concealed Pockets – The Christmas List Call Out

With the festive season fast approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of poetry collections, pamphlets and anthologies that would make excellent Christmas gifts.

To do that, I’m calling on the book bag readers to offer some advice to each other.

 What I would like from you is the title, author or editor and press with a couple of lines as to why you think a particular book will make an excellent Christmas gift as well as a photograph of the cover.

I will then select and compile these into a list and share at the end of November. This is a great way to boost poets and presses alike as well as giving gift ideas to your fellow poetics.

To quote Shelley ‘Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.’ Why would you not want to share that?

How to send the information: Send an email with the subject ‘The Christmas List’ to thebookbag25@gmail.com before 23:59 on 21st November 2025.

Please attach the image of the cover as png or jpg file formats.

I Ho Ho Hope to read your recommendations soon!

Stay Poetic,

Paul

Featured Image: Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

The Book Bag – The Keeper of Aeons by Matthew M.C. Smith

Welcome back to The Book Bag. Last week, I enjoyed Damien B. Donnelly’s Back From Away.

This week, I’ve submitted a poem to the Starbeck Orion #NotAdvent edition (accepting submissions until 16th December 2024 on departure, disappearance, abandonment, withdrawal, exodus, evacuation, absence, Extinction Event. submit – you know you want to, details here), done some Christmas shopping, made a delicious fruitcake and got valuable feedback on my writing plans. Among all that I’ve been reading;

The Keeper of Aeons

  • Author: Matthew M.C. Smith
  • Press: Broken Spine

I’ll start by saying that Matthew is a huge figure in the poetry community. He is a publisher extraordinaire through Black Bough Poetry and the architect of Top Tweet Tuesday on Twitter/X, where a community of poets can share poetry and receive weekly feedback from guest hosts and peers.

He is also a workshop facilitator, a campaigner to return The Red Lady of Paviland and Paviland relics to Swansea, an open mic host, a Poetry Party organiser, a mentor, an editor, and, most importantly of all, a genuinely top man who celebrates others’ successes and encourages people to do well. He is one of the people who have had a positive influence on my poetry for which I’m truly grateful.

The Keeper of Aeons takes the reader through space, time, myth, pop culture, the marvel of Welsh landscapes and beyond. The scale of the collection is introduced immediately in the poem ‘Astronaut’ followed by ‘Aeons’ in which past, present and future clash in marvellous sensory descriptions.

As an advocate for imagism through Top Tweet Tuesday and Black Bough Poetry, it is unsurprising that Wales’s vivid, rugged and sometimes dark landscapes are described in such incredible detail. Poems and prose including Mynydd Drummau / Drummau Mountain, ‘Henrhyd Falls / Annwn’  and ‘Sweyne’s Howes’ treat us to explorations of glorious places.

We are treated to nostalgia in ‘Fixing the Hyperdrive’, a piece that pulls us into the family home and the receipt of a Millennium Falcon. References to parma violets  (the most underrated sweet there is) the newsreaders of the era, and obviously a catalogue of Star Wars characters, but the star of the poem is undoubtedly Uncle David. 

The romantic in me admires the inclusion of some exceptional love poetry, notably in ‘Ancient Navigations’ a poem that guides the reader on a road trip around the countryside, and ‘Reunion’, a poem about Penelope and Odysseus reuniting (The Odyssey is my favourite of the epic poems).

In the poem Towards Night: from The Space Station, the question of human progress being too rapid and the potential aftereffects. Again, razor-sharp imagery and language throughout. 

Buy this collection. It’s visceral, thought-provoking, philosophical and clever. Also, it depicts Wales so beautifully and the next time I visit, I’ll have an itinerary as long as my arm. You could describe Matthew as the twenty-first-century RS Thomas.

Favorite Poem:
Reunion. Followed by Ancient Navigations, then The Blue Hour. 

One More Thing… 

I’ve already mentioned Matthew is a campaigner for returning the Red Lady of Paviland to Wales. More information on this campaign can be found here; https://x.com/PavilandFutures and the illustrated pamphlet Paviland: Ice and Fire  (currently on sale at a reduced price) can be found here; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paviland-Ice-Fire-Matthew-Smith/dp/B0BRSG6ZLF 

And Another…

As stated earlier, Matthew is also the man behind Black Bough Poetry. You can learn more about him and Black Bough here; https://www.blackboughpoetry.com/  


And Finally… 

If you’re free on Thursday 12th December 2024, the super-talented Louise Longson is hosting a poetry event on Zoom. Called Human / Nature, the poems explore a sense of place and space. I am one of the readers alongside a stellar array of poets and tickets can be snapped up on the following link for free: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/human-nature-poetry-readings-exploring-a-sense-of-place-and-space-tickets-1094310144099 

The Book Bag will be closed for the next few weeks but don’t fear it will return on 5th January 2025. Thank you for delving into The Book Bag with me in 2024.

Drop a comment and let me know what you’re reading plans over Christmas. I’ll be reading the Black Bough Christmas/Winter Anthology, and this book from Hedgehog Poetry Press which I’m in.

Take it easy, stay poetic and have a very merry Christmas,

Paul

Advent Calendar Poem #24: A Mild Christmas Eve

The low dawn casts its shadow
gently as pastel persimmon
across the rooftops
as blinds twitch 
in hope of snowfall 

robins like paladins
stand proudly atop fenceposts 
keeping watch over the people they love
singing quiet whispers of strength 

along the emerald and dull silver hedgerow 
the squabbles of nature seem calmer
as if peace has befallen predator and prey
and no man’s land is safe for a while 

believing isn’t seeing
believing is believing

Thanks for joining me for the last day of the advent calendar of poems. I hope you’ve enjoyed my scribbling over the past month and year. All your support is highly appreciated.

Here’s a quote from my favourite Christmas film, Scrooged: “ It’s Christmas Eve! It’s, it’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we, we, we smile a little easier, we, w-w-we, we, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be! It’s a miracle, it’s really, a sort of a miracle because it happens every Christmas Eve.”

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

Paul

Advent Calendar Poem #23: Pressure Cooking

There’s a tumbling of sprouts
mini green baubles spilling 
over the kitchen floor 
from the punctured paper bag
a reindeer’s snack 
has caused the tear 
as if anticipating 
the sound of sleigh bells 
but the only sound at the moment 
is sobbing and swearing 
the self-imposed pressure building 
before you can relax 
you have a hundred jobs to do
but Christmas isn’t all on your shoulders
grab a drink and take a seat 
a deep breath to slow down
like snow falling 
everything will be okay.

Hey everyone Merry Christmas Eve Eve. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read the penultimate advent calendar poem for 2022.

Here’s a quote from one of my favourite Xmas movies, The Polar Express “Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.”

Take It Easy

Paul

Advent Calendar Poem #22: Sparkly Presents

The wreath shines
in winter light 
scarlet holly glowing 
slices of scented citrus 
glistening like stained glass 
even long-dried pinecones 
have a revived golden aura 
emerald fir and spruce branches 
hold everything together 
this natural bracelet
a truly precious 
and priceless gift.

Thanks for taking the time to read this poem. I hope you’re doing amazing this week and have some merriment planned over the festive period. Only 2 poems left of the calendar. Thanks for the ongoing support, it’s very appreciated.

Take It Easy

Paul

Advent Calendar Poem #21: Midwinter

The winter solstice 
deepens the darkness 
tilted away from the sun 
we cling to the watercolour sky
and whatever sunlight we can 
for our diurnal delectation 
the night              
  -   can wait.

Hey, happy solstice day and thanks for stopping by to read poem number 21. I hope you are having a great week and have had plenty smiles this week.

Take It Easy

Paul

Advent Calendar Poem #20: A Take on Christmas Films

I slip into the comfort 
of old Christmas movies 
like John & Hans   tearing up Nakatomi
Buddy finding his family    and a new job
George finding help from Clarence
Frank Cross reuniting with Claire
and a boy in blue dancing with snowmen 
the nostalgia is like hot chocolate 
and warm hugs 
it’s hard sometimes to step away.

Thanks for stopping by today to read number 20 in the advent calendar. I hope your week is going well and that your all sorted for the festivities.

Take It Easy

Paul

Advent Calendar Poem #18: A Smile On Your Face

Snowmen standing in front gardens
waving at passers-by
who cling on to fenceposts 
tentative steps on glass concrete
some have dogs that pull on the lead
and drag like huskies 
along the glittery cycle path.

If you see something that you find amusing don’t be afraid to smile. I hope your weekend has been well spent, less than a week to Christmas!

Take it easy

Paul