Oh my, it’s nearly Christmas. We love our festive traditions and here’s a particular favourite: The Northern Soul Christmas Poem by award-winning poet Wendy Pratt, written in response to Paul Hunter’s beautiful photograph of Cod Beck reservoir in the North York Moors. 

Winter at the Cod Beck

Out at the Cod Beck, ice
has caught the joy of dogs and walkers,
has set their prints hard as memory.

We follow the darkness home
to wellies dripping water in the hallway,
a hat on each end of each radiator.

A tree sprinkles stars in the glass
of the window. We see ourselves
reflected: a nativity scene of sorts,
TV at the centre adoring our faces.

Snow falls, forgiving us our trespasses.

 

Poem written exclusively for Northern Soul by Wendy Pratt. Photo by Paul Hunter