As the nights get dark and a New Year draws closer, we turn to some cheeky, cheering new poetry...
‘Winter is the season for stories and poems, getting warm and sharing words.’
—Ben Macpherson, Foreword
Although I’m not an unbearably festive person by nature, I can’t agree with Macpherson more. With Winter approaching, Macpherson’s words have certainly warmed me as he embraces both the joys and the not-so-snowy parts of the season.
His new anthology Serious Nonsense for the Unbearably Festive warmed me with its affectionate parodying of the common Christmas fights; the struggles of gift-wrapping; and the unjustified hatred of Brussel sprouts. He also warmed me with his imaginative takes on Christmas cliches— in the Macphersiverse ugly Christmas jumpers come alive, Santa is a criminal, and yes, he is also secretly the reindeer Blitzen in disguise.
Macpherson’s rhymes maintain a charming carol-like quality throughout, making his poems easily read and remembered. This is most explicit in his poem ‘The Twelve Haikus of Christmas’ in which he merges the popular carol The Twelve Days of Christmas with, as expected, the haiku. He toys with music and form throughout. My favourite of these experiments are in his poems ‘The Christmas Roast Battle’ and ‘Lullaby of the Pigs’. The first is inspired by rap, with different choice meats battling to be declared the best Christmas dish. In the latter, ‘Lullaby of the Pigs’, Macpherson employs a subtle dark humour, as the poem lulls the pigs in blankets to sleep— Macpherson writes that they dream excitedly of ‘letting off steam’ in the ‘cosy hot ovens’, which, of course, will end with them being eaten at Christmas dinner.
Macpherson even transcends the role of lyricist or poet in this anthology— becoming an advocate for elf EDI in Santa’s workshop with his poem ‘Santa’s Medium Helpers’ in which he speaks up for the employability of the tiny, big, and average sized.
Serious Nonsense ends like a Christmas cracker.
This playfulness of Macpherson’s runs throughout Serious Nonsense, yet, two poems surprised me with somberness: ‘Dizain for Unwanted Presents’ and ‘A Seat Among the Poppies’. The first reflects on what it means to give and receive an unwanted gift— I felt my heart drop with his emotive yet simple final line: ‘turns out I knew you a little bit less’. The latter poem captures the painful and ‘echoing’ absence of a departed loved one as felt in the first Christmas without them. These poems truly add such a depth of human experience to the holiday. Through this, the book completely cuts past the stale, idealised winter wonderland that many of us have come to expect of Christmas themed media.
Serious Nonsense ends, fittingly, like a Christmas cracker. Once you’ve finished cracking open his anthology, Macpherson gifts you with a glossary full of quick jokes and phonological puns to torture your loved ones with. Also useful for littler ones if they’d like to learn some of his vocabulary!
Finally, any discussion of Serious Nonsense wouldn’t be complete without praise for the charming ink-style illustrations of Raphael Achache— who Macpherson thanks for having ‘brought so much life’ to his words. His style is loose and expressive, with an enchanting resemblance to my memories of childhood picture books and caricatures.
Whatever shape your winter holidays take— I hope you stay warm, stay rested, and, if you’re up for it— share some Serious Nonsense with someone you love.
Ben Macpherson's Serious Nonsense for the Unbearably Festive is available here.
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