Poets Christmas (not) Party
And a Friday round up...
One of many reasons I like working as a freelancer is that I no longer have to make up an excuse for not attending the work Christmas party. This big annual event used to make me shudder. Even medium-sized dinner dates would make me groan. Small talk drains the life out of me. I know for lots of people this is the exact thing they’d miss if they weren’t employed - my husband is Mr Social and goes into the office when he doesn’t have to because he likes seeing people. But my idea of fun is more of the small group, candle lit pub, roaring fire, someone standing up to say, “shall I read some poetry,” and everyone nodding profusely and slipping their shoes off under the table variety.
Yeah, I’ve never been to a Christmas party like that.
Hang on.
We have the date in for our next Poetry Circle (Monday 2nd of December, 8pm, GMT). We have the venue (Zoom) - ok so it’s not quite the right ambience but if we all made our backdrops into ‘Winter log cabin with fire’?! We could definitely be shoe free. Small talk would be non existent. (BTW, I have no idea how to change my Zoom backdrop and unfortunately we have no Mike in IT to help out but hey ho, we have poetry!)
Shall we cosy on up and have a sort of Poets Christmas (not) Party? Make our own playlist out of our favourite poems of the year? Perhaps we could all bring along either the favourite poem we’ve written this year, or a favourite poem we’ve read. And if you don’t want to read it yourself, then we know there are always helpers on this front. If you forget, or don’t fancy this bit, don’t worry. This isn’t the works Christmas Party, it’s not like forgetting to bring your secret Santa. We’ll all just be happy to have you with us.
I’ll try and dig out the odd Christmas poem to make it feel festive. Christmas PJ’s/jumpers/reindeer headbands - all entirely optional! If that’s your thing, sparkle your way to the screen, if not, wear whatever the hell you want (honestly, sometimes I miss IRL and other times…) I may well bring myself a mince pie and a glass of something mulled. Depending on numbers we might have time for a little write at the beginning too, like usual.
What do you think? I’m normally unconcerned about attendance numbers but please do let me know if you can make it in the comments. To be sat alone at Christmas (not) Party, even an online version, would be a tad miserable. Although, tbf, probably give me some decent writing material, haha.
And on to our round up for the week. Almost forgot that bit.
Well, there were some lovely examples of funny left in the comments of the original post back on Sunday. If you missed them.
Am I stalling because I haven’t written anything. Noooooo. I would never do that.
Turns out I found it exactly as hard as I thought I would. BUT, I did see the funny side of a few situations, I think because I was looking for material. And that, I think, is a result in itself.
How did you get on? Manage to write anything this week?
AND are you coming for some festive poetry on Monday?
Hope so, on both fronts
N xx
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