Three of our members' works at The Poetry Fence at Acton Scott!

If you happen to find yourself roaming around Shropshire, please visit the historic farm, Acton Scott, nestled in the natural beauty of an English countryside. And don't forget to pass by the Poetry Fence where three pieces of poem by our members Romalyn Ante, Cherry Doyle, and Kuli Kohli were featured hanging in a red-silk tie along the fence. 

 Click HERE to check those lovely pieces of poetry.

 Thank you to the poet in residence of Acton Scott, Jean Atkin, for featuring such lovely poetry! Visit the Acton Scott website HERE

:-)

Letters to Me: February Writing Task by Kali Ravel

Warning: Some strong language in this one!

Following the sessions we did on writing for children and writing exercises, I've been using the techniques we discussed to develop two of my characters. To this end, I found an exercise which consisted of a list of questions to answer, and began working through them for both characters. The final question, which I include below, was to write a letter to myself from the point of view of those characters.

My first character, Eloise Richards, is fifteen-years-old and lives with her Aunt Portia. Her life is reasonably idyllic, apart from a few things. She is home-schooled due to her issues with ADD and recurring nightmares, which prevent her from sleeping. She is also saddened by being separated from her parents; she was born as the result of an affair, and each of her parents has another, legitimate, daughter. Eloise was sent away in order to uncomplicate the situation.

Eloise lives in a universe very like ours, apart from the fact that certain people have special powers, including Eloise herself. If it sounds like X-Men, that's because I loved them when I was thirteen and first invented the character!

Mina Stafford, my second character, is markedly different to Eloise, and it was very interesting trying to write them both at the same time. Mina is in her mid-twenties. She was abused by her parents – sexually by her stepfather and emotionally by her mother. As an adult, she finally began to build a semi-healthy relationship with Leo, a Canadian con artist. When he died, she was unable to cope and slaughtered those who she felt were responsible before turning the gun on herself. Her letter to me is rather different from Eloise's.

A Letter from Eloise

Dear Ms Ravel,

Oh my god! Well, like, literally right?! You made me! You made my whole universe! Oh my god, this is such a big deal! Do you have magic powers? Can you make me fly?! Can you fly? I would fly, if I made the universe. Why didn't you just make everyone fly?

I really don't know what to say. I feel like I should ask you for something. Like, can you make the whole world peaceful, and make everyone immortal? I don't know how that would really work from like a space and resources point of view...can't you just like magically move people to other planets? Like with magic doors? And just make crops appear where they're supposed to so everyone can eat?

Can you make everyone not be ill any more? Can you make everyone happy? Can you make my parents be in love and make my sisters...well, maybe not never exist, because that's mean and I'm sure they like being alive, but, make them, like someone else's kids and someone else's sisters?

Can you take my nightmares away, and let me get some sleep? Can you make it so it's always a really nice spring day, with sunshine and light breezes, but not too shiny and not too breezy, and maybe a thunderstorm every so often to spark it up a bit? And, like, cure cancer? Will you cure cancer? And all those other horrible illnesses? Please?

Also, that flying thing. That would be awesome. But not wings, we'd all have to change our clothes so the wings would fit and it would just be so awkward.

Love

Eloise Richards

A Letter from Mina Stafford

Dear Ms Ravel,

Oh, I'm coming for you bitch. What kind of sick psycho are you, to do this to me?! You gave me parents who never loved me, a mother who didn't give a fuck what happened to me, and a stepfather who got his kicks from raping me! You gave me my Catholic beliefs, and now you're trying to take them away?! Is there even a God?! You're my goddamn creator, and you did this to me! You bitch! You took Leo! You gave me all that shit, then you gave me one person, just one person in the world who didn't ignore me or hurt me, and then you took him away! You took him away! He was good! He was a good man and he was mine and you took him AWAY!

Bring him back. You can do that. You made this world. Bring him back!

...I don't give a shit about “plausible narrative”. Those words are in my head because of you, aren't they?! I don't give a fuck how you do it, just bring him back!

You made me, and you made me a killer. I'm coming for you.

Mina Stafford

You can follow these links to read the character profiles for these two lovely ladies.

Read more of Kali’s work at her blog 'This is how it begins'.

April 12th Session & April Writing Task

This month we welcomed Jack Edwards, our guest speaker, who ran a session on Japanese short forms of poetry.

We started by learning about Haiku and how traditionally in English, they’re considered to be written in 3 lines, with 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second and 5 in the third.

My storehouse burned down - (5)

now nothing stands between me (7)

and the moon above. (5)

Mizuata Masahide

We tried writing a Haiku in this format, which was unusual for people who were used to writing prose or long poems! Then we learned from Jack that the syllable count doesn’t matter too much, and what’s more important in Haiku is capturing a moment.  

Spring rain –

under trees

a crystal stream.

Basho

For a writing exercise, each of us picked a photo. Some people had a lake, a beach, or a city. We then wrote a Haiku for each season, based in the location shown in the photo. It really got us thinking! Having four Haiku meant we could link them into one longer poem.

After this, Jack got us all to write a Haiku about somewhere or something in Wolverhampton. He split us into groups and we linked all our Haiku together to make a poem which flowed. This is an example of Renga, which was a collaborative form of poetry used by the ancient Japanese. One person would start with a Haiku, and others would contribute verses to add onto the end, creating a long story.

Once we were all comfortable with Haiku, Jack taught us how to extend our Haiku into a Tanka, by adding two lines on the end which reflected on the initial 3 lines.

It was a very interesting session, and something very different to usual. It’s always enjoyable to learn new techniques, and we thank Jack for joining us.

April Writing Task

This month, our task is to write a Haiku based on something which happens during the month. We will share these at the next meeting.

Take Care of Her by Michael Hill

TAKE CARE OF HER

22nd December 1989: It had been sometime,
I hadn’t seen you, it was near Christmas time
You were taken into Newcross Hospital.

You were very ill, that’s the last time I saw you
At 7:00 clock that night we just arrived home
When the call came in from the hospital.

They told me Mother’s dead, I put down
The phone, drop it to the floor and walk out
The door, I when through hell

Thinking I’ve need see you again,
We knew you felt your life was coming to
An end 

Those letters they sent me never reached me, we’ll never
Walk through Green fields again or watch the leaves
Fall from the trees,

You said that you wouldn’t go but you did,
The progress report came in that night, we thought
You pulled through but you hadn’t

You passed away alone, couldn’t get
To the phone.

I felt bad about the row we had, never had
The time to put things right with you: that
Broke my heart...

There’ll come a time we’ll see each other again but until
That day comes; God and his angels will take care of you
They’d got my job.