G.I.F.T Challenge #4

This tradition is an important one in our family and began about the time Erin was born when I saw a production of A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas performed by The National Theater of the Deaf. I bought a copy at that time (1973-74) and have treasured it ever since.

One Christmas was so much like another,
in those years around the sea-town corner now
and out of all sound except the distant speaking
of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep,
that I can never remember whether it snowed
for six days and six nights when I was twelve
or whether it snowed for twelve days and
twelve nights when I was six.

All the Christmases roll down toward the
two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon
bundling down the sky that was our street;
and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged,
fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the
snow and bring out whatever I can find.
In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued
ball of holidays resting at the rim of the
carol-singing sea, and out come Mrs. Prothero
and the firemen.

It was on the afternoon of Christmas day...

It is referred to as a short story, but my copy is a very small, 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch book with original woodcuts by Ellen Raskin. I've copied a bit from it to show you that, unlike some versions, mine is set in as poetry. Dylan Thomas was first and foremost a poet and even his prose is poetry.

I would give a lot to see the National Theater of the Deaf performance again. Poetry spoken by the narrator and poetry in motion as the actors sign the poem and act out the drama. Wonderful!

Listen to it here
Read it here

My copy is a very small, 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch book with original woodcuts by Ellen Raskin. I've copied a bit from it to show you that, unlike some versions, mine is set in as poetry. Because Dylan Thomas was first and foremost a poet and even his prose is poetry.

I would give a lot to see the National Theater of the Deaf performance again. Poetry spoken by the narrator and poetry in motion as the actors sign the poem and act out the drama. Wonderful!