Week Five: Our Place, Ourselves and our Poetry……..Final session on 26th November 2013

Decision day today concerning the future of the group and the publication of some of our poems.

 

Poetry (Photo credit: Kimli)

After discussion with Devellopment Plus staff:

1. The group agreed that they wanted to carry on with the Poetry sessions meeting at the same time on a weekly basis. They also indicated they wanted to write short stories and non-fiction. Having a leader for the group was considered absolutely necessary and DP will facilitate this.
2. The group members were keen to see their work in print. To this end, each of us will submit up to three poems to be collated by DP staff. The aim will be to produce a pamphlet/booklet of poetry before Xmas with enough copies for members to circulate to others………..

We also agreed a title for the group: A WORD IN EDGEWAYS…………….

 

English: Title page of Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We each read our pieces which we had worked on the previous week……..

Themes were around: Papa, My Dad, Autumn and Cousin Alan.

Really looking forward to seeing our work in print!!!!!!!!

 

 

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Our Place, Ourselves and our Poetry: Week Four Together……………

WE had the best session yet, reading our poetry on ‘Persons and relationships’.

 

 

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Each of us was able to read a couple of poems and listen to the comments and level of appreciation. WE had poetry about:

Maggie Thatcher…………

My Dad…………

Cricket……………

A death of a friend………….

The poetry was evocative, emotional, accomplished, clever, humourous, stylish, idiomatic, conversational, challernging, political, generous. And the discussions were extensive, provocative, intense. I wish I had a recorder with me!

I’m really enjoying being the listener, the observer and occasionally joining in the discussions.

We also discussed more titles for the group : The Dancing Poets, Inter-city poets, Inner city Poets. At our last meeting together, next week,  we’ll make a decision as to what the group will be called …….moving ahead.

As to what the future of the group will be, each member has expressed an intent to continue writing and would like there to be informal sessions/workshops of the kind we are currently running. I have written a review/report to Development Plus expressing my views as to what should happen in the longer term. The future will be determined by the group and the Management of Development Plus.

At the conclusion of the Project, I have mooted the idea of collecting poetry from each participant and printing the work in some way. What has been produced is too good to lie unseen in the journals. A wider audience would appreciate the quality of what has been achieved. We are working on this now……………..

Vernon Goddard…………

 

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Our Place, Ourselves and Our Poetry…..3rd Session on 12th November 2013……

 

 

Today was quite vibrant!

John, Adrian, Becky, Tim and Vernon grappled with ideas around:

• Is poetry just for the middle classes?
• Evoking emotion in words.
• Existentialism in writing and the influence of the French novel.
• Using rhyme and internal rhyme.
• The dangers of Formalism but the importance of some discipline.
• Having/Finding a ‘voice’ in one’s writing.

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We read our poems of PLACE and clapped at the best ones!

Becky and John came up with some names for our group:”Poetically Minded” or “A Word in Edgeways”…..I so like them both I wouldn’t know which one to choose!

 

Cliif-top writing shed overlooking Afon Taf, near Boat House, Laugharne, used by Dylan Thomas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

We read Dylan Thomas’ ‘Do not Go gentle….” as an example of a poem about people. Our task during the week – to write a poem about another person……….. CAN’T WAIT!!!!!

 

 

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Our Place, Ourselves and our Poetry: Second meeting.

There can be no greater pleasure than listening to individuals reading their poetry……….

Today, we enjoyed that pleasure through the work of Tim, Becky and Adrian, Bob and Vernon We also commented on each other’s writing………..

What emerged was a wide range of interests: Life in general, the closeness of relationships, death, obsessions, childhood.

We discussed, in  some depth,  poetry which had location/place at the heart of it. We illustrated this through the poetry of Vernon Scannell.

 

Vernon Scannell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Next week we will read our poems reflecting the nature of Place. We will also consider a name for the group…………

 

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Our Place, Ourselves and our Poetry………….Our First Week…..

 

On 29th October we tentatively met for the inaugural meeting of the poetry group at Development Plus in the heart of Abbey Ward, Lincoln. There were a few of us: Becky, Hannah, John, Tim, Adrian and myself – Vernon.

Quite a few of the members knew each other so forming a group soon became ‘being’ a group. We ranged across a number of topics:

• So you want to write poetry – Why?
• The nature of poetry versus other forms of writing.
• I handed out journals with the request that all writing be recorded there.
• Why each person was attending.
• Poetry of ‘Place’ and poetry of ‘Person’.
• We read poetry by Robert Frost and Ian McMilllan.
• Some of us feared the ‘rhyming bat’.
• Our private aims and aspirations for the project.
• The exercise for the following week was to write in the journal what each person wanted from the next few weeks together.

It’s pretty obvious to me we have some members who are very skilled at wrting and using words…..this should be fun!

 

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Our Place, Ourselves and our Poetry – New Project for October & November 2013.

Hi Everyone – I thought I’d let everyone know that a new project is starting at the Development Plus Centre on Croft Street, Lincoln entitled: Our Place, Ourselves, Our Poetry.

We [i.e the SSC] have been asked to respond to a request from members of the centre who wish to write some poetry. I’m delighted to be involved with a 5 week project just to see what the needs are and to respond in any way that might be helpful.

We start next week on the 29th October and I’ll keep everyone posted about progress.

Cheers…………Vernon.