The Christmas Painting

He disappeared
to who knows where,

and I didn’t find out until Christmas Day
that he’d been to buy a painting.

The woman looks like me,
pushing my old bike through the gate

of our red-brick cottage,
in my long black coat.

Greeting me in the garden, is the goat
I always wished I’d had,

a cat, crows
and the little dog in the front window.

Each time I look up
from writing a poem,

I am reminded
of sparkling ice and snow,

the brassy wind that lifted carpets,
of coats, hats and scarves, worn indoors.

But those memories
soon melt into smiles at the warmth we shared,

the man, the dog and the cat,
waiting for me at home.

Kim M. Russell, 4th April 2025

Painting by Dee Nickerson

It’s Day 4 of NaPoWriMo 2025, and today’s daily resource is the online exhibitions page of the International Folk Art Museum and the optional challenge is to write our own poems about living with a piece of art. The example poem is ‘Living with a Painting’, by Denise Levertov, a poet I admire.

One of my favourite modern UK artists is Dee Nickerson, which is why I’m writing about her, as a piece of her art adorns the wall above my desk.

14 thoughts on “The Christmas Painting”

  2. I like the warm ending with the dog, cat, and man waiting. Many nice touches: wind lifting carpets, the sparkle of the ice and snow like fluid jewels of winter, crows announcing the g.o.a.t., and through the gate a bike pushing happy wheels spinning joy.

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