National Poetry Day 2005: The Future
29 November 2005
Hello again. Last week was the second last workshop for this project, with the Herts group. Smaller group - may be partly down to the much colder weather that suddenly kicked in, or because we had a one week break due to the group having a management committee meeting.
I have so enjoyed this project, partly because of the really interesting discussions that have emerged. Last week people asked about how you develop your self-confidence as a poet - how do you go beyond self-doubt and questioning? It's such an interesting question, because I don't know a single creative person who has transcended these concerns. And poetry is a marginalised artform fo the most part, so if people are serious about making some kind of career out of it the rewards are - relatively - pretty small. Working with different community groups raises the question of why people write, across all levels really.
One more session to go. Hopefully though this pilot project will generate enough interest to lead into further work with groups of this kind.
15 November 2005
The final session for the Bedfordshire groups was at Biggleswade library yesterday, Monday 14th. Very enjoyable session again, and generally very positive feedback from the people attending, some of which I will include in my final report. People very keen for more work along these lines. I feel very happy about the level of commitment from this small group of participants. People again brought work in yesterday, including pieces that had come out of the workshops and been reworked to be uploaded onto the website.
As a final writing exercise yesterday, we looked at the poetic moment - pieces that capture a narrative moment that has resonance either in memory or in thinking about the future. Some striking images emerged, including "surrounded by dirt we find ourselves/staring at a wooden heaven." (Carla Jones, Penny In The Drum - shortly to be found in the Bedfordshire groups' pages on this website).
There is a real sense that in these smaller communities there are not many courses of this nature on offer, and people may not be able to go further afield for reasons of health, having young familes, etc. At whatever level they are working, the participants in this group all took their poetry pretty seriously and are keen for further opportunities to develop it.
07 November 2005
Been struggling for a few days with my server, hence the delayed entries for last week. Only one more session to go with the Bedfordshire workshops, but only half way through with the Herts ones. Both have been hugely enjoyable. People keep bringing in swathes of stuff, some of it in response to the workshop exercises, and some just work of their own that they want feedback on. Really get the sense, in smaller communities expecially, that there is a hunger for some kind of forum for exploration and feedback of work. Seems to be very common that people have real writing ability but struggle to discover how to dissect and edit. We have taken substantial time to try and get that process ticking over.
We also opened the sessions out to look at what are some of the things people want to write about - what do they feel passionately about, or want to explore - as part of the process of identifying what kindof writer they are (or would like to be). Trying still to link that in where possible to the Poetry Day theme of The Future. One person brought in an autobiographical essay that he'd written. It was a fascinating piece and had a very strong response from the group. We decided to look next time at how to take an autobiographical (or biographical) incident and turn it into a poem. So, now to dig out some examples.
28 October 2005
P.S.
One other thing that has been striking has been about dealing with the NPD theme of The Future. Much of what emerges in people's response to the theme is troubled, and highlights for me how much concern there is in general about our personal futures and the future of the planet. Those pieces that are positive seem very much an act of will, a decision to find the positive, a statement of intent. There are fewer of the positive pieces, and the imagery that more often seems to emerge is quite bleak.
28 October 2005
This week's workshops - Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire groups - have again been a real pleasure. There are people taking their writing very seriously and every week, it seems, people bring in new pieces they have been working on. Trying to still make sure we have time within the sessions for people to do a reasonable piece of writing on the spot - which is often a challenging thing to do. It's a common thread that people are very apologetic when reading things out, as if they feel they should have a finished product after ten minutes of writing in a workshop! But often what emerges is wonderfully creative and inventive with so much potential for further exploration. The biggest pleasure for me with the groups has, I think, been the experience of people really working to apply what has been discussed to then rework the initial inspiration into a stronger piece. I also love the fact of having younger and older group members having a go at different forms - political pieces, rap, haiku - just because they feel moved to have a go.
21 October 2005
Wednesday was the first Hertfordshire group, contacted via a local community organisation. Despite the thunderstorms and torrential downpours eleven people showed up, which was really gratifying. People attending for a whole range of reasons, sometimes just curiosity, sometimes a commitment to developing existing writing skills. Funny how often people seem to have a very ambivalent relationship with poetry, but something draws them towards it anyway. Tried to emphasise that poetry is a very big umbrella, and that you need to identify what kind of poet you wish to be. Best way of doing that is by reading it! Work out what works for you, then look at how it works. I will try and take in a wide range of examples for people to read over the next few weeks.
17 October 2005
Bedfordshire today, with a bigger attendance than last week and again some really lively discussion. It's always interesting trying to juggle the range of reasons why people come along. We did more writing exercises than last week, with the focus on initial inspiration and freeform writing, to try and allow yourself not to know what is going to emerge. This can be a new and sometimes challenging idea. I am trying to introduce the notion of surprising yourself with what you write. Also we talked more today about the place of feelings in poetry, looking at how feelings can be more powerfully expressed through imagery and metaphor rather than through bald, prosaic statements.
The majority of people attending are older, and that puts a particular slant on exploring the theme of The Future. I was very struck by that today, particularly with one lady's vision of a world of her horizons shrinking, but becoming increasingly defined in terms of technology for communication, such as webcams, videophones etc. We often don't think of the elderly as being very au fait with technology (I struggle enough with it myself!) but she had a real vision of her future years being perhaps defined by it.
13 October 2005
Today was the second (and final) day or workshops with the Ipswich Road day centre group. The group was half of yesterday's people (some had other commitments today with work and college etc) and half new people. If anything today was even more enjoyable, and the group did incredibly well. We have two completed group poems which Jill Adams from Norwich Millennium Library would like to put onto their website and hopefully Social Services website also. Both the library and the day centre were keen to discuss future options for work. Doing poetry with people with learning disabilities is very much a collective endeavour. Highlights were the level of enjoyment group members got from the process, as well as a sense of achievement. Today we worked with visual resources, which helped people engage imaginatively. The biggest surprise was the amount of work we did on rhyme. The group members managed a huge feat of concentration to come up with lots of rhyming words, something I hadn't intended to prioritise at all, as people yesterday seemed to struggle with the concept. Today's group poem is more to my personal taste with some truly surreal imagery based on the photos we worked from (including a verse about the future being a dog going to university). This has been such an enjoyable process. I hope to be able to come back at some point to do more. It's also been great making contact with the Millennium library here in Norwich. What an amazing community resource!Jill Adams told me yesterday they have 1.4 million visits each year which is more than the entire population of the county. Great to see the place heaving with people.
12 October 2005
This is coming from the very impressive Norwich and Norfolk Millennium Library, where I have been working today with the group from Ipswich Road Day Centre. It's a great set up here and lovely to bring a group in to access these facilities. We had seven participants this morning and one staff member from the day service to support and participate. This afternoon I will attend the Day Centre to carry on with the work started this morning. We have been using a list poem approach, with people coming up with positive and more challenging thoughts and feelings about our theme, The Future. Also using colour based images to think about different metaphors for the future.The session was an absolute delight, and I look forward to the rest of the work here.
11 October 2005
The Poetry Laboratories got underway today with workshops in Bedfordshire. The morning was in Biggleswade and the afternoon in Sandy. The libraries were welcoming and although the number of participants was small, all brought examples of their writing - which they had not been asked to do. I thought we might get mostly beginners but had engaging sessions of detailed feedback straight off the bat, as well as discussions of the bigger issues of what poetry is. We touched on The Future as a starting point for new writing, which we will continue next week.
Tomorrow I head up to Norwich for workshops on Wednesday and Thursday, this time with people with learning difficulties, from a local day centre, who are apparently already doing some poetry. Should be very interesting. It's good to be up and running.
28 September 2005
Hello! First entry for this exciting project. There has been much behind-the-scenes organising going on to co-ordinate groups in three locations. Although we are still waiting last minute confirmations we will be kicking off in the next week or so with adult groups in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Norfolk - which I am looking forward to enormously!
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