Sharville Christmas Newspoem 2006
Hello dear friends, it's time to have inflicted
Upon you our pentameters of news.
No doubt you will have much of it predicted:
As always, we'll be glad to hear your views.
First, news that caused us tears and deepest sadness -
Our dear old cat, Jet, died in the New Year.
She lived to twenty-one, she brought us gladness.
We miss her and we wish she were still here.
We still have Flash. We thought she would be lonely
And spoke of kittens, but she made it clear
She's happy in her role as one and only -
A baby now is not the best idea!
Our holiday in May took us to Boston
And to my brother's house in New York State.
At Waldon Pond our senses were quite lost in
Its magic. We must set a return date.
Then, much to my surprise I won a ticket
For each of us to Taunton's County Ground.
But they were not to see a game of cricket,
But Elton John in concert. What a sound!
Talking of cricket (hush, howls of derision!)
Gloucester continued their good one-day form
And gained promotion to the First Division,
Where "One Day Kings" should be - for them the norm.
Our families this year we have been seeing:
My niece and nephew over in the States,
Later we had the privilege of being
With our GREAT nieces (they are Ric and Kate's).
Then from the blue my cousin sent an e-mail
(Whom I'd not seen for more than thirty years)
He's just re-married - an Egyptian female -
And called on us; we savoured a few beers!
We've had our bathroom done, such an improvement
On what was there before - the horrid suite,
The plasterboard's weird tendency to movement,
The walls of puce - all gone. It's now a treat!
And Mum's extension is all done and dusted,
An asset to her house, and looking good.
Mum bravely with the tiling me entrusted,
(It went much better than I feared it would!)
And, as I write, a new job I am starting,
Assessing colleagues doing NVQs.
No more for Bristol seven a.m. departing -
I plan my day exactly as I choose!
And Adrian's working in a new location
As carer in a house for three or four.
He's happy now there's much less confrontation
Though night shifts seem to feature more and more.
My next "big O" approaches; it seems funny
To think how fast the years whizz, in our prime.
Time was when ten pounds was a lot of money,
Time was ten years was such a long, long time...
Mum's eighty-fifth, Ade's fifty-fifth all sewn up...
We've known each other nearly twenty years...
Our schoolfriends' children now are mostly grown up...
How great the joys we've known, how salt the tears.
And how much more incumbent on each person
To do our bit to save our planet Earth
To help make sure the future's not a worse 'un
Than what we've known. Consider what that's worth.
We hope that you've enjoyed this year's Newspoem.
We pray that love and peace with you abide.
We wish a magnum, no, a jeroboam
Of happiness to you this Christmas tide!