Stephanie Cage - Writer

I haven't been around much lately.  The real world has rather taken over from writing for a while, but here's one thing I have written which seems apt for today: It Isn’t You Of course I don’t mean you.  You are a product of the Empire With no memory of a home outside these Isles. Your stories and your smiles are in my earliest memories You’re British through and through And if we had to vote for you To leave or to remain, Despite your birthplace and the colour of your skin, I’m sure that anyone would vote you ‘in’.  I don’t mean you, I mean those others who Like the Loch Ness Monster, I have never seen, But must exist because the Daily Mail and facebook tell us so. No, they should go, the lazy slobs Who waste our benefits; the greedy ones who take our jobs. I don’t mean you, my friend, whose thirty years of Yorkshire overlaid On native Michigan have not yet made You local in some Donny eyes – or ears – Your fair skin and your pe...

With not much time for writing lately, I've been concentrating on short 'done-in-a-minute' pieces, and this is my latest, and possibly my favourite.  It's designed as a hymn, to be sung to the tune of Londonderry Air (the folk song otherwise known as 'Danny Boy', which can be found in a choral arrangement in the Unitarian hymn book, 'Hymns for Living', published by Lindsey Press.) But I couldn't resist sharing it as my wish for all my readers, and everyone, everywhere, in 2012. Oh Bright New Year Oh bright new year, our hurt and anger healing, We hope you’ll be for all a time of peace, New paths and places to us all revealing, And from our sadness bringing sweet release.  Oh bright new year, bring moments of reflection, And pleasant times, our weary souls to rest. Oh bright new year, bring fun and love and laughter; Each moment of the year be heaven blest. Oh bright new year, our hopes and dreams reviving, We hope you’ll be for all a time of jo...