My first time back at Ardgowan last night. What a change from Zoom! The big room was spacious and airy, there was hand sanitiser and each of us had a six foot table all to ourselves! Felt like a very safe environment and, apart from the mask wearing, GWC was just like it used to be – except for more room. Colette was deputising for the recovering Anne (hope you’re feeling better soon) and handled the proceedings with aplomb. There are a couple of workshops planned with Danny McCahon this weekend (on both Sat and Sun) for the Lee Jeans project so if you’re interested in attending contact Colette.
The night featured Grahame’s poem ‘Old Friends’ pondering the relationship between Life and Death. Everybody loved this poem apart from Laurie who hated it – just kidding. Grahame’s personification of these two entities and their interaction with each other led everyone to appreciate the importance of living life to the full. It actually led to quite philosophical discussion after we’d all delivered our comments on Grahame’s poem which brought up a lot of food for thought for all of us writers. Ho hum. It is so much easier and enjoyable to do these things in person than via a computor screen. Oh if anyone does have an electronic version of their comments on Grahame’s poem if you email me at calzacgwc@gmail.com I’ll pass them on.
After tea… Ahhh is there anything like a shared cup of tea and a chat? Anyway we did a little writing exercise that Claire Watt had set. Essentially mining our own teenage past for tales of teen spirit. Tony told some tales from his jotters of teachers past (who must not be named) and the things they did. He then proceeded to name some of them! There was Stacey’s beautiful poem of teenage angst where ‘nice gets you lonely’ and Franziska’s story of football prowess. Morris’s teenage heist caper gone wrong contrasted with Laurie’s lament on how crushes can be crushing when you’re 13. We say this every time but is always amazing to hear so many different takes on the same subject. Clair Watt expressed an interest in reading these so if anyone wants to email your teenage stories/poems to Colette she will pass them on to Claire.
Next week’s meeting on March 23rd is a Social Writing Group one via Zoom. There is no fixed agenda for it but possibly we could use it as a workshop to work on the three or four little 4 minute dramas for the Lee Jeans project.
Ho Hum, onwards and upwards.