Framework Words & Music: Twelve Days

An inter-weaving of seasonal poetry and music written, arranged and performed by Stuart Henson and John Crawford Running time: Approx. 60 minutes Award-winning poet Stuart Henson reads from his book of Christmas poems, accompanied by John Crawford on melodeon and guitar. Get into the festive mood with poems that celebrate Christmases past and present. John’s music, drawing on the English and European folk traditions, weaves in and out of lyrics that feature birds, beasts, bells, and the Nativity. As Stuart says, “Twelve days of Winter celebration. Twelve poems from cards sent over the years at Christmas time. One or two have appeared in books. One became a British Council Christmas greeting. One was overlooked and left forgotten in a file. There have been others – another carol, a pub-scene, and Annunciation . . . but twelve is a good number.” ‘Stuart Henson is an Eric Gregory Award winner and recipient of an Eastern Arts Bursary for ‘A Place Apart’ (Shoestring Press, 2003) His most recent poetry collections are ‘Beautiful Monsters’ (Shoestring Press 2023), a New & Selected entitled ‘The Way You Know It’ and a haiku nature diary sequence of a year in rural Cambridgeshire, ‘A Handful of Wasps’ (2025). http://www.stuarthenson.co.uk/ John Crawford (melodeon and guitar) is well-known as a performer and musical collaborator in the world of folk music, dance and drama and has played regularly at festivals, theatres, arts centres and ceilidhs around the UK.