No such luck, I am afraid. Since I stopped work for the charity in September –
My writing life and has been hectic. Early in October I started my once a fortnight poetry class at a local community centre, the Gregson. We agreed we would keep it to four people at present and we would do five sessions before Christmas and then review. So far I am enjoying a chance to teach again, as teaching poetry is always an opportunity for me to learn and be inspired by my students and the materials we use.
Half way through October Kim Moore announced she is reviving the writing hour in January which is great and I have signed up for that. It runs 10 to 11 every morning on zoom with Kim and Clare Shaw. It is a great motivator for the new year and gets everyone out of the post-Christmas dark days slump.
The weekend of the 20th October saw the Lancaster LitFest autumn weekend and was closely follow by Jane Routh and Neil Curry launching their new collections at the Friends Meeting House, hosted by Mike Barlow. It was a real treat to go to a reading by two such accomplished and experienced poets.
November started with my two poetry group workshops running consecutively on the first Thursday and Friday. I had managed to write a poem for each of them. Now in November things have calmed down a bit and I am managing to get on with my current projects, of which more later.
My reading life
This last month I have enjoyed Gillian Clarke’s collection The Silence and Katrina Naomi’s Battery Rocks as well regain Polly Atkins’ latest prose collection In the Company of Owls. She read from this last at the LitFest weekend.
Tidying my poetry shelves has thrown up some collections I have not looked at for ages and I am now reading Kim Addonizio’s 2015 collection Wild Nights and enjoying it very much.
Hare in the Headlights
This last month, apart from all the above, I have embarked on a collaboration with a local film maker, Elaine Browm. I will be writing poems and script and Elaine will be in charge of filming. I am also putting together a pamphlet as a warm up for when I return to my collection in the new year.
Poem of the month for November is Days from my first pamphlet, Gardening with my Father (2015) the poem captures my feelings at this time of year as the allotment is tidied for the winter and I look back on the many different days I have enjoyed gardening in this last season.
Finally, I often add the odd political comment here a the end of my blog, but just now, like many people I am in shock as a result of recent events.
Until next month …