Winter’s Wreath at Churchmouse Afterhours Coffeehouse
Winter’s Wreath at Churchmouse Afterhours Coffeehouse
by Yvonne Blomer
I promised myself I’d write a blog a month, and then, you know, life! In fact, I’ve missed all the fall Afterhours due to family responsibilities, flying me up and down island on the weekends. Cynthia Woodman Kerkham has been holding the fort, and then she had to miss in November. I’m so thankful the two of us are co-hosting with Craig Hiebert, as it means all that life offers can be accommodated and we still meet at Churchmouse Books and gather to share songs, stories and poems.
Our most recent Churchmouse After Hours Coffeehouse was held on November 22 and the topic was Winter’s Wreath. This was the last meeting for 2025, so we covered a lot of ground, from the rainy winter’s we experience here on the west coast, to Dylon Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, a favourite of Elizabeth Baldwin’s, who also read some 13th century poems in Saxon/Middle English.
We had Sarrah Klassen poems read by Terry Vatrt, I read “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, and Agniya Sotskova read “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rosetti, and Rhona McAdam read “Snow” by Louise MacNeice, which you can read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91395/snow-582b58513ffae.
But we on the west coast are not having snow, we’ve barely had frost this winter season, we have had a lot of rain. Here is a poem on rain by Canadian Poet Don McKay:
Rain, Rain, Rain
by Don McKay from Camber: Selected Poems, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2004
On the roof its drone
is the horizon drawing closer for a
kiss, for an embrace whose message is,
whose muscle is the comfort of,
the family of,
the sociability of being mortal.
Outside, the leaves have multiplied its pitter
into the stuff of plainsong.
So many oceans to be spoken of.
Such soft ovations numbering
innumerable names for hush.
Who understands this tongue? No one.
No one and no one and no one.
Beyond the reading of poems and excerpts of stories, we had a lot of music in honour of Winter’s Wreath. Craig Hiebert and Dorothy Cook performed “All Hail to the Days,” an Elizabethan Carol with Dorothy on harp and Craig singing the lyrics:
All hail to the days that merit more praise
Than all the rest of the year,
And welcome the nights that double delights,
As well for the poor as the peer!
Good fortune attend each merry man’s friend,
That doth but the best that he may;
Forgetting old wrongs, with carols and songs,
To drive the cold winter away.
Carl Tinkwon played his guitar and sang Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and Harinder Dhillon performed a chant/song “You are the Light” with her incredible soft trilling voice. We ended the afternoon with Dorothy on harp with a winter Gaelic carol.
It seemed early to dive into the deep winter, Christmas, and the warm Wreath-like embrace of this time of year, but at the same time we made a wreath of our voices and songs, and in each other’s company.
As I write this blog we are now nearing mid-December, Solstice and all the lights and trees are shining from within houses as we darken and darken down into winter (and rain, rain, rain) and come toward the light again. Thank you to all who came, and who read this. Happiest of Holidays. May the Witner Wreath embrace you in good food, family, friendship, and the warmth of the season.
We will be back on January 24, 2026! which is National Compliments Day with poems, stories and songs of Praise (as well as a nod to Robby Burns Day on January 25).
(I apologize for any misspellings of names)