WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING ON ZOOM THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER 2020

Attending:  Amanda, Greg, Tricia, Heather, Sarah DD, Alan, Hilary, Simon, Liz, Carla, Alix.

Apologies: Dan

NEWS

Liz said that the book group would be meeting on Monday 11 January to discuss Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 

Heather reported that she had been one of 10 shortlisted in the Hysteria 2020 writing competition, with her poem, ’A Call from a Friend’, also published in the anthology. She had also had two poems included in the Creative Mind anthology published by Preeta Press. The subjects of the competition were Nature and Walking in Nature, and she had one poem chosen in each category: ‘The Inappropriate Cormorant’ (Editor’s Choice) and ‘Truths of a Wilder Walk’.

Carla mentioned that David Cooke’s online quarterly The High Window had put out a call for submissions from women poets. Submissions will be open again from the beginning of March.

READINGS

Alix read her spoof parenting blog called ‘Just the Tonic’ about the chaos that ensues in trying to complete a school task, involving a lost earring, and ‘the drawer of doom’.

Tricia mentioned the ‘little things’ in her Covid saga The Deadly Crown, that were missed most during the pandemic restrictions –  handshakes, hugs, hard cash, tag games, the camaraderie of being in a group, chance and spontaneity. And yet there was still an underworld that operated outside the rules.

Heather’s poem ‘Trip to the dustbin’ was very much about the little things, too. “The cold, damp air displaces dessicated cheer”, but there is a darker, wilder world beyond the bins, which you can hear as owls hoot in the wood. Simon compared the language of the poem to that of Edward Thomas’s ‘Adlestrop’.

Alan’s story Lock Step elliptically referred to small things, as Darren battled with an inner voice and tried to forget something involving Sandra. This enigmatic tale revolved around an accident, and conscience.  

Simon’s parody of Slade’s evergreen Christmas hit was a savage satire of the state of things, as we all contemplated circumscribed family festivities. It included such mordant lines as:  “Are you waiting for the vaccine to arrive? / Are you sure you’re going to meet the folks outside? / Does your granny cough and tell you / that she’s got a dodgy chest? / Is she on a ventilator with the rest?”

Sarah DD gave us the first draft of a poemthat resulted in some enthusiastic praise.

Carla gave us a poignant family poem titled ‘Moving Out’, about children leaving home, that was first drafted at a recent poetry workshop. Its lines included: “I might forget what to say / and you will be already gone.”  

Greg read a poem called ‘The Family Silver’, about a cruet set given to his grandfather by his football club to mark his marriage, soon after his return from the first world war.

Liz hadtransformed her usual Christmas newsletter to family and friends into a performance poem in the form of an unfinished personal alphabet.  She had had fun compiling it, even though the letter I inevitably was for isolation, L was for lockdown, and N the new normal.  

Hilary read a lyrical piece about a gift of a multi-coloured quilt which she had received in the post from a friend, comparing it to a coat of many colours, the perfect dreamcoat, and a waterfall of colours.

Amanda read her rollicking Christmas poem ‘The Cat Who Stole Christmas’ to round off our proceedings with a smile, the household pet prowling around “with a dirty dead mouse”.

Next meeting: Thursday 21 January.

Theme:  ‘The New’ or ‘Twenty-one’