Christmas Day

by Paul Durcan

For most of us Christmas is the season of huge helpings of good food, good drink, and with luck, good cheer, as the rituals of cracker-pulling, present-giving and happy or sulphurous family reunions fizzle and bang through the long afternoon. For anyone who has ever had too much of it, or felt out of it, or wanted to be out of it, or even succeeded in being out of it then been unexpectedly rescued by a good friend, this book-length poem contains a lifeline of humour and sanity in a world run seasonally mad. It is a funny, subversive, melancholy, self-mocking conversation between two men - Paul and Frank - in the top storey flat of a Dublin apartment block; a Stations of Christmas under the influence of "woman-hunger". Once read, Christmas Day itself will never be the same again. The volume also contains a second new work, "A Goose in the Frost", a tribute to Seamus Heaney on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Paul Durcan was an Irish poet.

Reviews

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an Irish exile I try to read Irish authors on a regular basis in order to stay in contact with the Irish psyche, a psyche that for many reasons has changed beyond recognition in the past 25 years. Paul Durcan is a poet of great insight (aren't they all?) and while I read/re-read his work on an ongoing basis I keep coming back to this book containing just two poems and notes. The Celtic Tiger has changed the face of Ireland and its people for better or worse (a BIG question). While Paul doesn't't critique (in this book) the pros and cons of an open and sensitive people turned upside down by sudden affluence and excess, he seems to be viewing the spectre of a loss of innocence out of the corner of his eye. Christmas like those Sunday afternoons (in the old days) is one of those times that can hang heavy with artificial merriment but as most people know can encase the most terrible loneliness and isolation. The rituals and pressure of forced mirth and revelry punctuated by family arguments, excesses and recrimination are well know to all people of honesty. Paul gives the feeling, in a mirthful way and at times with much sadness, that you are reliving some of the angst and mental confusion that only Christmas can bring. He brings you along on his most unusual Christmas Day excursion....all the while trying to avoid the seasonal madness. Paul's writing can be parochial at times as there are Irishisms that I feel may only be fully understood by the Irish, but they are few and its only a mild wink and a nod! Having said that there are universal issues here that should be explored by all. I never tire of reading it and it reveals something new with each reading.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Galoshes. Shadows. Melancholy. Much more than this. A book to carry about in your pocket, to read in queues, or whilst waiting somewhere. It is a joy. I like where it takes me.

[Mr Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw Durcan read this long poem aloud in The Bell Table Arts Centre in Limerick in 1996 or 1997. I was unfamiliar with his free verse, approachable-in-the-vernacular style at the time, and certainly it's a type of poetry that lends itself to performance. And Durcan's is a very obviously sincere voice, too, which of course also adds to the connection a listener might feel even more than a reader might do.

If it looks like there's a 'but' coming here, well... there isn't. I found, even after 19+ years, that his imagery and voice from that evening still palpably leapt off the page. This is a wry, sad, funny poem and it catches the loneliness that we all experience at some (various?) stage(s?) of our lives. And thankfully, as I hope I've already hinted at, it's not just a heartfelt poem, but a skilful one too.