A week or so ago I listened to a programme on Radio 4 about whether or not humans can hibernate. The scientific conclusion is that no we can’t, but some afternoons in the last month I have been tempted to take to the duvet for a month or two and wake up with the spring. November was wet and grey with an unexpected burst of cold weather and sunshine at the end; just a few days of winter as we imagine we remember it. This time of year is the hardest for me as I find the endless dark a real challenge. I have to keep busy to stave off a desire to hibernate.

However
My writing life continues. The last month saw two workshops to write for and a writing day spent with four women poets at my friend Carole’s house one Saturday. There can be few things more up-cheering than the company of poets on a winter’s day. Plenty of tea and biscuits and plenty of laughs as well as good poetry prompts to write to and poems to discuss. I am planning to hold one in February next year to keep up our spirits. Came way with lots of ideas to develop  into the next few poems.

There has also been the occasional Zoom workshop with the Ty Newydd group, but most of my time has been devoted to completing my pamphlet for a competition due for submission  this week. This Thursday is the December Stanza meeting, the last before Christmas. My intention for the next week or two before the festivities begin, is to work on the script and poems for the film, as I am meeting with the film maker soon.         

My reading life continues and I am still with the poets I was enjoying last month. I have completed the Katrina Naomi collection, Battery Rocks  and it has been both a pleasure and an inspiration. The poems are all about the sea on the surface but they have echoes and resonances for other areas of all our experiences. Thank you Katrina for a lovely collection. I read in your newsletter than it has already gone to reprint, well deserved. I have just embarked on a new nonfiction reading list of which more next time. I am eagerly waiting for my copy of Robin Wall Kemmerer’s The  Serviceberry on order from Waterstone’s.

Hare in the Headlights 

Not much to report this month as the pamphlet has meant that I have kept my head down and edited and edited etc. I am thinking about some magazine submissions for the new year.

Till then  have good festivities!

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 20^th 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 …

Welcome back to old readers and welcome to new ones!

I am back at last after 3 very busy years, which is a reason not an excuse! My news is that two weeks ago I finally left the charity I helped to found and chaired for eight years. It is called RAIS Lancaster, which stands for Refugee Advocacy Information and Support. It was sad to say goodbye to our lovely clients from the flourishing local asylum seeker and refugee community. It has been a privilege to work with them but now it is time to move on. In recognition of how important the work has been for me, the poem of the month for October is is Along the Canal, one of several I wrote over the years of my work with refugees.

So, now I’m back to writing, and writing poetry in particular, and there is lot going on. I am using the same format for my blogs as before as it works well for me.

My Writing Life has not done too well recently but I have now started to write some poetry again and have few things on the go. I have been greatly helped by the my wonderful WhatsApp group based on a residential course at Ty Newydd, the centre for literature Wales which took place two years ago. We were tutored by Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke. We have kept in touch and recently started to have regular Monday night Zoom poetry sharing. Usually three or four of us share recent work and it is stimulating and helpful. In addition I am returning to my local Stanza group and as often as I can to Brewery Poets in Kendal.

My Reading Life has consisted, as ever, of a number of interesting non-fiction books including Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger and currently Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome. I am still ploughing through the latter (it is a hefty read but very entertaining).

Recent poetry I have enjoyed includes Gillian Clarke’s The Silence and Kathleen Jamie’s Cairn which is not all poetry but a fascinating collection of various genres of creative writing. I am about to embark on the recent collection from Katrina Naomi: Battery Rocks, which won the Arthur Welton award this year. More of that next time no doubt.

Hare in the Headlights. Here I have two recent exciting developments to report. Mike Barlow whose Wayleave Press, who has published two of my pamphlets, has included two of my poems in the new Wayleave anthology, out few weeks ago, Press Rewind, Play Again.
Secondly, I have recently been asked by a member of the Stanza group to start a series of poetry workshops. I now have four potential members and we meet next week to plan how this will happen.

That’s it for now. Look out for my next blog in about a month.