{"id":2927,"date":"2010-12-28T06:30:44","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T17:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=2927"},"modified":"2010-12-26T22:34:37","modified_gmt":"2010-12-26T09:34:37","slug":"christmas-new-year-tuesday-poem-uncle-joes-new-year-tree-by-mike-bartholomew-biggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2010\/12\/28\/christmas-new-year-tuesday-poem-uncle-joes-new-year-tree-by-mike-bartholomew-biggs\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas-New Year Tuesday Poem: &#8220;Uncle Joe&#8217;s New Year Tree&#8221; by Mike Bartholomew-Biggs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u043d\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0433\u043e\u0434\u043d\u044f\u044f \u0451\u043b\u043a\u0430 \u0434\u044f\u0434\u0438 \u0414\u0436\u043e<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>(Uncle Joe\u2019s New Year Tree)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Things are getting better, he said grimly<br \/>\nas he dragged the rust-brown sawn-off spruce<br \/>\nindoors. Its torn-off needles flecked the snow<br \/>\nalong a track up from the rubbish heap.<\/p>\n<p>Sentimental celebrations \u2013 outlawed<br \/>\nwhile the house was gutted and patched up \u2013<br \/>\nwere now in order. Order of the day,<br \/>\nin fact, to match the neighbours\u2019 noisy parties.<\/p>\n<p>He liked it even better when he\u2019d hauled it<br \/>\nupright, all the empty dry-spiked branches<br \/>\ndraped with coloured fabric strips \u2013 like scraps<br \/>\nfrom rag-rugs on his mother\u2019s earthen floors.<\/p>\n<p>Now there should be candles. People brought them.<br \/>\nSomeone always brought him what he wanted.<br \/>\nSometimes he didn\u2019t want it any longer.<br \/>\nAs thanks he hung up dolls as ornaments.<\/p>\n<p>He said things had gotten merrier. They hadn\u2019t.<br \/>\nOverweight of decoration snapped<br \/>\nthe brittle, sapless limbs. He couldn\u2019t turn<br \/>\ndead needles green. But then again \u2013 Who could?<\/p>\n<p>(c) Michael Bartholomew-Biggs<\/p>\n<p>Note: <em>After the 1917 revolution Christmas trees were banned<br \/>\nin Russia. Stalin re-introduced them as New Year trees<br \/>\nin December 1935 \u2013 strange prelude to the political purges<br \/>\nthat intensified from 1936 as the \u201cgreat terror\u201d began.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Mike: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Michael Bartholomew-Biggs lives in London and is a retired mathematician who spent an all-too-brief time as a visiting fellow at the University of Canterbury in 2008.\u00a0 His most recent poetry collection is (appropriately) entitled <em><strong>Tradesman&#8217;s Exit<\/strong><\/em> (Shoestring Press, 2009)<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Although the Tuesday Poem Blog is officially in abeyance until January 18, I am posting a range of other poetry and short fiction on <em>&#8221; &#8230; Anything, Really&#8221;<\/em> over Christmas-New Year and thought Mike&#8217;s <em>&#8220;Uncle Joe&#8217;s New Year Tree&#8221;<\/em> a perfect Tuesday Poem to &#8220;fill in&#8221; during the holiday recess!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u043d\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0433\u043e\u0434\u043d\u044f\u044f \u0451\u043b\u043a\u0430 \u0434\u044f\u0434\u0438 \u0414\u0436\u043e (Uncle Joe\u2019s New Year Tree) Things are getting better, he said grimly as he dragged the rust-brown sawn-off spruce indoors. Its torn-off needles flecked the snow along a track up from the rubbish heap. Sentimental celebrations \u2013 outlawed while the house was gutted and patched up \u2013 were now in order. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2935,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions\/2935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}