Woking Writers Circle held its first online meeting on Thursday 16 April – and it was a great success. It was organised and set up by our secretary Amanda Briggs, who has expertise and experience in video conferencing, and attended by Tricia, Greg, Liz, Carla, Simon, Hilary, Sarah DD, Heather, Alan and Chris. An excellent turnout!

Apologies for missing LIz’s opening contribution, owing to my late arrival at the meeting. Tricia followed with a very thoughtful essay on what had happened so far in the coronavirus crisis, and what might take place in the future. She rocked us back on our heels by talking about 20 years from now.

Carla gave us a series of five delicate and elegant coronavirus haiku, and picked out one in particular which she said she had submitted elsewhere:

 

Long days of stillness,

no hurry to reach

the end of the rainbow.

 

Alan read a piece of flash fiction, About Face, which was unconnected with the crisis, but with a decidedly medical theme – and an in-your-face twist, as it were.

Simon’s finely wrought sonnet matched the fleeting world of the may-fly with a relationship which, it emerged, was long gone. He said it was inspired by a quote from Pablo Neruda: “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.”

Sarah read us a moving poem that she had “scribbled down” earlier that day called ‘Broken Shards’, using the metaphor of shattered glass while describing the plight of an older person waiting for death.

Liz let us know about the book group’s next project, which is Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, before we broke for an interval so that we could all take part in the 8pm clapping in support of the NHS front-line workers who are risking their lives to save ours.

When we resumed, Heather read her sonnet, ‘Song of the virus’, which describes this “thing of beauty magnified” as “hitching lifts on kisses”. It ends: “And as you isolate you might agree – / it’s odd that such a loving God made me.”

Hilary has been thinking about the theme of transformation, while reading a huge treatise about fairy tales, called From the Beast to The Blonde. She has been thinking about such ideas for her next novel, which will involve hairdressing.

Greg has been writing a series of poems during the crisis, a kind of poetry journal, and he read two of them: ‘Love in the Time of Coronavirus’,  about life in West Byfleet, and ‘Dancing in Marbella’, about lockdown in Spain.

Chris said his lockdown hobby has been writing a web serial under the title ‘ An ordinary novel but every 10,000 words the audience kills the least interesting character’. He warned us: “It’s more performance art/first draft than serious literature, so don’t expect anything too amazing.” Here’s the link

Amanda read another of her satirical pieces about a fictional school and the chaos that ensues as it approaches lockdown. She began: “The school was disintegrating. It was a sinking ship, and we were at the helm as it went down. Students and teachers had started to abandon ship way before we were ready to launch the lifeboats.” The Titanic analogies didn’t stop there. And it ends thus: “A few days after we officially closed, I went into work one last time to collect essential items from my office … Panic buying was its peak at this point, and worries about acquiring basic necessities had overtaken those of continuity of education. I started sorting through my files, deciding which might be most useful, but went instead to the supply cupboard, and filled my bag with boxes of tissues. Loo roll substitutes. The impact of the virus had finally begun to sink in.”

It was a very jolly evening. We listened to each others’ work, and commented, as we always do, but in an entirely different setting. We agreed to hold another meeting in just a fortnight’s time, instead of the usual month. That will be Thursday 30 April. The homework subject – “Transformation.”

Greg Freeman