A beautiful poem on the ‘refugee crisis’ around the world, a spirit of generosity:
WHAT YOU NEED TO BE WARM
Neil Gaiman
A baked potato of a winter’s night to wrap your hands around, burn your mouth
A blanket knitted by your mother’s cunning fingers or your grandmother’s
A smile, a touch, trust as you walk in from the snow
Or return to it the tips of your ears pricked pink, frozen
The tink tink tink of iron radiators waking in an old house
To surface from dreams in a bed, burrowed beneath blankets, comforters
The change of state from cold to warm is all that matters and you think
Just one more minute snuggled here before you face the chill. Just one
Places we slept as children – they warm us in the memory
We travel to an inside from the outside. To orange flames of fireplace
Or wood burning in the stove. Breath-ice on the inside of windows
To be scratched off with a finger-nail, melted with a whole hand
Frost on the ground that stays in the shadows, waiting for us
Wear a scarf. Wear a coat. Wear a sweater. Wear socks. Wear thick gloves
An infant as she sleeps between us. A tumble of dogs
A kindle of cats, kittens. Come inside. You’re safe now
A kettle boiling at the stove. Your family, friends are there. They smile
Cocoa, chocolate, tea, coffee, soup or toddy, what you know you need
A heat exchange, they give it to you, you take the mug
And start to thaw. While outside for some of us, the journey began
As we walked away from our grandparents houses
Away from places we knew as children – changes of state and state and state
To stumble across a stony desert or brave the deep waters
While food, friends, home, a bed, even a blanket became just memories
Sometimes it only takes a stranger in a dark place
To hold out a badly-knitted scarf, to offer a kind word, to say
We have the right to be here, to make us warm in the coldest season
We have the right to be here…