Faith, Love and Compassion
- the official website of Elaine Coltham

Wishing you a happy and blessed Christmas. Thank you for supporting my writing and the charities I have worked to help over the years with my poetry and my children’s novel. I’m delighted to say my total donated to the charities is getting closer to £6000 now!

I thought I would like to share one of my Christmas poems with you.

God bless always

Elaine

Dream of First Christmas

So the bible falls shut

And I close my eyes

Soon I can see them, feel them.

In a dream of first Christmas.

As night’s blackness surrounds me

I see the brightness of one star

The glistening gold on a silhouetted king.

I hear quietness across velvet hillsides

As the darkness of this world descends

Angels suddenly proclaim the arrival

Of the precious new born lamb.

 Inside the stable in awesome stillness

Amongst the rough and crude straw

The heavenly babe innocently sleeps.

Kneeling beside him

Shepherds bow heads in adoration

With fresh hope for this world

Bursting from their triumphant minds.

I witness the start of a pilgrimage

From the wood of the manger

To the wood of the cross.

I feel the joy of his mother Mary

Her fixed gaze never leaves her son

But sadly I have read the script

And I, not wanting to acknowledge

How her tears of happiness

Will turn to those of sorrow.

Before her a gift from the Father

Like no other could give

Soon I awake from my sleep

I can no longer see them

In my dream was the vividness

Of that first Christmas night

Now it is written on my heart

Having unwrapped the everlasting present

And experienced the comfort of a child

In God’s enfolding arms.

So the bible falls open

And I, with eyes willing to see

Read the word and its ending

From the wood of the manger

To the wood of the cross

 And beyond, towards a promise…

 Of eternity.

Elaine Coltham

Hello to you
Happy weekend to you wherever you are across the world.Thought I would share a new poem I have written in the last few days. It’s thoughts and sadness about fox hunting and is dedicated to friends at The League Against Cruel Sports who work tirelessly to campaign to protect our wildlife.

We Will Never Understand…

Blood red coat
Hunting coat of brown
Pack of dogs
Will hound you down.

Against all decency
Against the law
Through stirrup-cup eyes
And blood sports paw.

So few may cheer
But most will weep
You hunted down
Now forever asleep.

Blood red coat
Blood-stained hands
This barbaric action
We will never understand.

Elaine Coltham
2014

This is a poem I wrote as my wish list for the children of our world. As we get nearer now to 2015, we are acutely aware that time is ticking for the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals to be achieved.These goals, once achieved, would make a huge difference to the quality of life across the world where so many struggle and suffer from extreme hunger, poverty, lack of education to name just a few.
With many children caught up in the tragedy of war and displaced from their homelands, we witness on our televisions those faces of children living in refugee camps and many who just long to go to school.

I Want For Them

I want for them, a day
When living can be fun
No more drinking dirty water
And surviving on the run.

I want for them, a smile
No more tears in hollow eyes
See faces creased in laughter
Each day a new surprise.

I want for them, to be fed
In their bellies and their minds
With food and education
So they won’t be left behind.

I want for them, a roof
Over their tiny, precious heads
No sleeping on cold soil
But warmly covered in a bed.

I want for them, protection
From immunisation’s prick
To save more from dying young
And many others getting sick.

I want for them, a time
When we can live as one
And children live, as children should
Dancing freely in the sun.

x Elaine

These last few weeks we have seen so much devastation caused by the storms. Across my garden lies evidence of the power of the wind, a tree ripped down.Fences are bent and twisted but we have much to be thankful for.Through my television, I have seen so much tragedy of the recent storms and it made me think of a few ways its affecting the lives of those who live and work in the areas of extreme flooding. Here are a few words I have written in a poem to express a few of those feelings. I make no apology that the poem is also political, I believe we can all be political when it comes to speaking out for those in need, be it suffering people, or the continuing cruelty that is happening to animals, including awful plans for more badger culls in 2014.

Where Will You Go?
(Dedicated to the Victims of 2013/2014 UK Floods)

Where will you go?
Your homes left behind
Dismal sandbags have failed
Dredging orders now signed.

Where will you play?
Precious misty-eyed child
As rain lashes down
And rivers run wild.

Where will you roam?
Across vast watery plain
Tired cattle and horses
With bedraggled mane.

Where will you grow?
Fragile, swamped tiny seed
In fields like a river
Until gushing waters recede.

Where will you help?
You politicians all
For you cut bare the budget
From behind Whitehall’s wall.

© Elaine Coltham
2014

Hello dear followers
Sorry haven’t been blogging for a while, but today I wanted to share a new poem written for Marius, a young giraffe killed this morning in Copenhagen Zoo. He was doomed it seems,although many of us tried to raise his awful plight across the world of social media. Those who held the gun would not listen and refused to re home him to a place where he could be loved,cherished and respected for the beautiful part of God’s creation that he was. What more can I say……

Marius Oh Marius
(Dedicated to a young giraffe killed in Copenhagen Zoo)

Marius Oh Marius
We tried hard to fight
Through our tweets and campaigning
Into darkest of night.

But some ears would not listen
Now your heart beats no more
And our hopes for your future
Lie dead on the floor.

We are sorry we failed you
And our tears fall like rain.
May your spirit live on
Across some African plain.

© Elaine Coltham
9.2.2014

Today I was invited on to Mark Murphy’s show on BBC Radio Suffolk to talk about my poetry, as part of their celebrations for National Poetry Day. I chatted to Mark about my books and read a recent poem, After The Stars Comes Morning, which is dedicated to my friends, the badgers, who continue to face an awful fate.

You can read the whole poem in this earlier post, and you can listen to today’s interview below:

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Hello and welcome to my website,thank you for your continued support for my writing and my vision to help charities through my books.
I have recently written this poem and wanted to share it on my website, I have written it for my friends the badgers,some are facing the most awful fate this summer.

AFTER THE STARS,COMES MORNING

After the stars, comes morning
There will be fewer stars tonight
After the stars we are mourning
As they lay dead in early light.

After the stars, comes morning
Echoing shots still ring in my ears
After the stars, we are mourning
Through reality, despair and tears.

After the stars, comes morning
There will be fewer stars tonight
After the stars, we are mourning
For you friends, we have lost this fight.

Elaine
June 2013

I was delighted to be invited back on to Lesley Dolphin’s show on BBC Radio Suffolk on Wednesday, to talk about my new book In Our Hearts. Once we got rid of the gremlins on the phone line, we had a good chat about the inspiration for the book and the fact that all proceeds are going to St Elizabeth Hospice. I was proud to announce that we have already raised £500 for the hospice. You can listen to the interview below:

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Very pleased to tell you that my new book “In Our Hearts” is now published. The book, my eighth, is a collection of my poetry, with introductions to every poem, together with many photographs, drawings and paintings.

The book costs £7.50 and the entire amount I am donating to the St Elizabeth Hospice in Ipswich for their wonderful work.

Apologies for the long delay in writing some news here. It’s been a busy and hectic few months. But writing is never too far away from me and happily I can tell you that my new book “In Our Hearts” is coming together and I hope it will be published in November. It’s another poetry collection, all written by me, with illustrations and photographs contributed from my family. My vision this time is to help the St Elizabeth Hospice here in Ipswich. As I write this, I am in the process of seeking sponsors to cover the cost of printing the books so I can donate the entire cover price to the Hospice as I did with my last book “Always a Hero” written for the EACH Treehouse Children’s Hospice. I have donated £1805 to the Treehouse to date from that little book.

 “In Our Hearts” is dedicated to the memory of my Dad, but it will be a book that everyone can remember someone they loved who is no longer with us…..

 I am starting a new “Poem for the month” page on the website; the first one, “Tide Comes In” ,is one for children and maybe us grown-ups too!

 God bless your day today.

  Elaine