A Chocolate Box Menagerie is a wonderful little volume of charming poems full of strange creatures with recognizable personalities. Freeman explores the child’s world in which there is no distinction between animate and inanimate. A packet of spaghetti is as likely to be looking for love as a sparrow. Starfish gaze at the night sky and wonder from where they’ve dropped. And bathroom mirrors live in constant torment, unable to flee from what they have to witness every day!
We read of domestic dramas: the marmalade’s bitterness towards the jam; the macaroon’s attempt at singing and dancing; and the infidelity of a pickled herring. There are also many poems about exotically named animals.
The book is remarkable for its wit and inventiveness. Has anyone written before about the yearnings of a bacon sandwich, or told of the tragic life of a coat hanger? Who has ever thought to create a world peopled by letters of the alphabet? And all this is done with the enduring grace and beauty of meter and rhyme that will surely appeal to all ages.
Tabella dei contenuti
Contents
Preface 11
Acknowledgments 13
PART ONE
A CHOCOLATE BOX MENAGERIE
CREATURES OF THE LAND
Setting off 17
Exotic personalities in your kitchen 18
More from the breakfast table 19
The bravery of flowers 20
More breakfast tales 21
Personalities in your garden 22
Personalities in your home 23
Two stories from the tea table 24
Socializing 25
More from the kitchen 26
Love in unusual places 27
Misused and neglected 28
Two summer poems 29
Summer’s end 30
Meditations on eternity 31
Memories 32
Tesco tales 33
Love in the meat section 34
Facial problems 35
Tesco temptations 36
Without a care 37
From the frozen wastes 38
Ancient personalities 39
A couple of lightweights 40
Teacher and student 41
More Tesco tales 42
Two in the corner 43
Faces of my cat 44
Snobbery at Tesco 45
A couple of residents of my cellar 46
Unhappiness at the restaurant 47
Excitement in the kitchen 48
Yet more Tesco tales 49
More cheesy ones 50
Streetwise 51
At a leisurely pace 52
For the young at heart 53
More for the young at heart 54
CREATURES OF THE SEA
Great and small 55
Indispensable services 56
At the bar 57
A couple of originals 58
What’s in a name 59
Two very practical personalities 60
Two very fishy ones 61
Things you didn’t know 62
A couple of entertainers 63
Fearsome types 64
Explorers 65
CREATURES OF THE AIR
A couple of specialists 66
Advanced flying methods 67
Love is in the air 68
Unusual jobs 69
More indispensable services 70
A puzzle and a puzzle solver 71
Avian vagaries 72
Endangered species 73
Unappreciated beauty 74
Holidaying around the British Isles 75
And finally, for intergalactic harmony 76
PART TWO
CHOCOLATES OF THE MIND
CREATURES OF THE ALPHABET
Introducing a few characters 79
The Tragedy of the p and the q (I) 80
Questions of identity 81
Two special letters 82
The Tragedy of the p and the q (II) 83
Relations 84
The Tragedy of the p and the q (III) 85
Heroic types 86
Disorderly conduct 87
The Tragedy of the p and the q (IV) 88
Other faces of the letters 89
Another face of the q 90
Fruitfulness and plenty 91
Diversity issues 92
Faces of vanity 93
Love among the Alphabet (I) 94
Something brewing (I) 95
Love among the Alphabet (II) 96
Souls at odds 97
Something brewing (II) 98
Matters of class 99
Some tails 100
Something brewing (III) 101
Curtain call 102
Circa l’autore
Paul Freeman was born in 1949 and has lived most of his life in the UK. Following university, he spent five years in Japan studying Zen at Shogenji in Minokamo. On his return, he became an art dealer and photographer.
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