He wonder’d, / He stood in his / Shoes and he wonder’d.
John Keats, ‘A Song about Myself’
The birds were silent in their nest, / And I must seek for mine
Wm Blake, ‘Night’
They are not long, the days of wine and roses
Ernest Dowson (1867-1900) trans Horace
And there was his house, clear against the skyline:
A solid-looking, stone-built place, fenced about with split oak
Neil Curry’s translation of The Odyssey: The Bending of the Bow.
When all the hills are flat, / and all the seas run dry…
Anon
It was Alice’s idea a couple of years ago, that we all meet in the college for a whole weekend with nothing to do but write and chat about writing together. Last weekend was our second Summer Retreat, coinciding again with the height of summer, and it gives me huge pleasure to watch these writers develop their confidence and write so exquisitely. Some are writing novels though they started small, others are dealing with editors within sight of the finishing line, and some are holding on to writing while life is more than usually demanding, as writing even a little always helps.
One of the writers has just emailed to say, ‘Thank you so much for leading us through a lovely retreat, it was inspiring, interesting and heart-warming as usual. I really enjoyed it.’ Many thanks for such kind words.
Many thanks too to Kathryn (on the staff as well as in the group, and herself a beautiful writer) for organising everything and to the marvellous caterers for keeping us topped up with tea, coffee and biscuits. Thank you, Churchill Association and Churchill College, for supporting this group since I set it up in 2011. Happy writing, everybody!
Last Saturday we gathered in Churchill College again to chat about writing and have a scribble or type together. My prompts are in bold – have fun with them:
Mr Robinson’s expense book for May (1845) gives no hint that anything was wrong.
The three hours he had intended to stay stretched into three days.
(both from Daphne Du Maurier’s biography: The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte)
No coward soul is mine
(Title of Emily Bronte’s poem)
From Marion McCready’s poem Ailsa Craig
I write your name on a slip of paper /with a question mark, /place it under my mattress.
From Auden’s poem Epitaph on a Tyrant
He knew human folly like the back of his hand.
We jumped straight into writing together last Saturday, almost as soon as we sat down. For a good twenty minutes everyone was absorbed, head down, scribbling or typing. Members of the group are free to write whatever they like, to respond to a prompt any way they like or not at all. The important thing is to free up the writing muscles and enjoy it. Very often, the writers are surprised and proud of what comes to them. Here are our latest prompts in case something works for you:
‘No one is immune to her power: the gods themselves are as much at risk of falling in love as the rest of us.’
‘The evidence is in, and you are the verdict.’
‘We look before and after/ And pine for what is not’
‘I don’t know nothin’ of what life’s about / just as long as you live, you never find out.’ Don McLean’s song, Wonderful Baby
My latest review for London Grip is of God’s Little Artist, Sue Hubbard’s distillation of Welsh artist Gwen John’s life in short, beautifully constructed poems. I found myself deeply moved by Hubbard’s writing and by Gwen John’s strength in pursuing her art.
Here are the five writing prompts I brought to our first Churchill Writers’ session in person since last November. As usual, I opened books from my shelves at random and chose a line or two, anything at all. The context of the source doesn’t matter, what’s important is that you take a prompt and dance with it whatever way you like. Enjoy the adventure:
‘inside will be a room filled with everyone I love‘ (from Joelle Taylor’s C+nto)
‘the music is big boned, takes up the whole of the dance floor‘ (source ditto)
‘he’s killing the shadow of a life my mother lived before they met‘ (Mothersong by Amy Acre)
‘Shadows on the wall, Noises down the hall‘ (Maya Angelou, Life Doesn’t Frighten Me)
‘I’ve got a magic charm that I keep up my sleeve‘ (source ditto)
Several of the group members said they hadn’t written anything for ages and doubted that they’d be able to produce anything. Well, here they are…
This Thursday is World Poetry Day and I look forward to reading in Ashford library in Kent, from 6.30pm, alongside these excellent poets:
Maggie Harris was born in Guyana and has lived in Kent since 1972. A poet, prose writer and memoirist, awards include Kent’s Outstanding Adult Learner, The Guyana Prize, Commonwealth Short Story Prize and The Wales Poetry Award. Her poem ‘Canterbury’ is displayed in the city’s Westgate Garden, and the BBC-commissioned her poem for Kent, ‘Lit by Fire’, about the North Foreland Lighthouse.
Christopher Horton was a prize winner in the National Poetry Competition and the Bridport Prize and won first prize in the South Downs Poetry Festival Competition in 202. His pamphlet, Perfect Timing, was released by Tall-Lighthouse Press in 2021.
Jessica Taggart Rose is a writer and editor fascinated by human nature, the nature of time and our interactions with the natural world. She has poems published in the Letters to the Earth, Storm Chasers and ‘New Contexts’ anthologies, Confluence Magazine, Full House and Three Drops from a Cauldron. A founding member of Poets for the Planet, she lives in Margate where she helps to run the Margate Bookie Lit Festival and Margate Poetry Stanza.
This is going to be a really exciting evening. Many thanks to Christopher and the library for organising it. You can book your tickets at £2.50 each here.
On Tuesday 5 March, 2024 at 7pm, I am honoured to be one of the Live Canon poets reading at In-Words’ Shakespeare event in West Greenwich Library, London SE10. Organiser Irena Hill says:
‘Local writer and scholar Neville Grant will talk about some aspects of his recently published book Shakespeare in an Age of Anxiety (Greenwich Exchange, 2023) – his motivation and process of writing, and a very 21st century perspective (our own age of anxiety).
Neville’s talk will be followed by readings from 154 (Live Canon 2016), an amazing project where each of 154 poets responds to one of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. Lorraine Mariner, Gillie Robic, Rosie Johnston, NJ Hynes, Doreen Hinchliffe and Nick Elsen form the outstanding line-up.
With many thanks to James Hodgson of Greenwich Exchange and Helen Eastman of Live Canon.’
Details of everyone’s CVs are on Irena’s website here. She omits to mention that wine and her fabulous home-made cakes will on offer too. Please join us if you can for this unique evening.
New writing prompts from still photographs here today if you’d like something from the wild, windy English coast to move you towards writing.
The Churchill Writers came up with some fantastic writing from these prompts last Saturday, all in just ten minutes with no preparation. The essence of free writing is to start anywhere and keep writing at all costs. Welcome whatever comes without judgement until the time is up and let your writing surprise you. Writing alongside other writers can create an intoxicating energy but you can do it on your own too. Our prompts were these:
Too close to call.
They hardly ever touch.
‘Free as a thistle, white hair blowing’ (from Second Childhood by Phoebe Hesketh)
Her arms were around his neck and she would not let go.
Here’s a photo prompt to welcome spring too.
Happy writing!
Rosie Johnston 