WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING Thursday 15 July 2021

Present:  Greg (Host), Carla, Hilary (Chair), Heather, Sarah Bell, Liz, Dan, Alex, Alan (Minutes)

Apologies: Tricia, Amanda

News:

Heather had given a poetry reading to Carers UK, on Zoom. She found this a profoundly moving experience, feeling “humbled” by the carers’ unfailing concern for and commitment to severely ill children. Many carers were effectively trapped in their homes, with their loved ones or other dependents, as a result of the latter’s needs and the current restrictions.

Hilary advised that Amanda has offered to host the next meeting in her garden, with the possibility of this being a social rather than a reading event. Heather will check with Amanda whether this could be on the usual third Thursday (i.e. August 19). Hilary also agreed to contact St Mary’s Horsell again, to find out if a September meeting there would be possible.

Readings: The homework theme was ‘The Beautiful Game’.       

Carla read a poem entitled ‘Watering My Pot Garden’. The repetitions of key phrases made for very powerful, emphatic verse, giving a physical impression of the sheer effort required to maintain a garden. Listing various flowers and vegetables in the opening verse formed an original and effective introduction. The phrase “pot garden” gave rise to amusing speculation about possible drug-related connotations. The dual imagery of snapdragon blooms, firstly in terms of their colours and then their skull-like shapes, was a subtly unsettling, brief  ‘modulation into a minor key’, felt to be worthy of masters of the horror or Gothic fiction genres.

Greg, having regard to the homework theme, read a poem called ‘Touchline Dads’, recalling brawling fathers at a kids’ football game. Vivid imagery allowed us to visualise the two parents setting about each other like ferrets in a sack, following one child’s goal being disallowed. Everyone admired the nostalgic atmosphere and powerfully invoked passion of being a dad on the touchline. Greg also recalled his own warning from a referee, for being an over-involved parent.

Dan read ‘The Nebula’, a short story about a spaceship travelling through a highly radioactive and dangerous asteroid or similarly threatening belt of galactic horrors. The narrative examined the psychological effects (as recorded in the ship’s log), of the dangers on the various crew members. Great escalation of tension and effective use of detail combined to produce a gripping tale with a strong sense of imminent doom. Dan explained that he was considering adjusting the length of this piece, to comply with competition or other submission requirements. The creeping, growing horror of the plot, including the loss of individual crew members, apparently callously recorded by the narrator, impressed all listeners as a subtle technique.

Heather read two wonderfully atmospheric poems. The first, with the splendidly deceptive, apparently utilitarian title of ‘Loading The Dishwasher’, was a lovely fusion of domestic irony and faux noire. This included a marvellous satirical reference to Munch’s ‘The Scream’, combining that image with a reference to a knife in the poet’s hand. Alex shared an interesting reference to the link between different people’s methods of dishwasher stacking and their personalities, that she’d discovered through various past conversations. Heather’s second poem, ‘Pegging Out’, was another master class in atmospheric period detail, garnered from childhood memories of her mother’s domestic circumstances, including references to finger drawings on window panes that “wept into black, rotting frames”, as the scrawls were destroyed by running condensation. A reference to the copper vessel commonly used in those days effectively recreated the wearying tedium of washing day.  Allusions to the fatigue and effort associated with all-day washing routines, devoid of domestic appliances, conjured images of war. These made the contrast with her mother’s joyful experience of the wild, untamed sensation of the wind, up on their tiny balcony, with billowing sheets, all the more effective.

Liz read more from her life writing journal, entitled ‘The Diary of A Somebody’. All enjoyed the various references to wildlife – green woodpeckers “feeding exactly like pneumatic drills” and a dehydrated, wrinkled frog that she had to pick up and remove. These were interspersed effectively with memories of patchwork sewing and asides about the origins of her early experiences of wildlife – a dislike of birds being ascribed to her father deliberately showing her a scrawny, naked baby cuckoo. One particularly charming reference involved a russet-breasted robin darting into the cover of a nearby hedge. Another section dealt with scenes from Liz’s childhood at a farmhouse on the Hog’s Back. We learned of the chicken house – warmer and hence more welcoming, due to its location on the south face of the Hog’s back, than the farm house on its north-facing counterpart. An atmospheric description of her fear of a broody hen’s probable reaction to attempts at egg collection, together with scenes from a party, with a chandelier fashioned from an old bicycle wheel, candles and jam jars, completed a memorable album of imagery.

Hilary finished off the currently untitled short story that she had commenced reading at the previous meeting, involving Julie and Margery, Julie’s adult neighbour from childhood. This had begun with a doorstep conversation, in which Julie introduces herself to the vicariously predatory Margery, as Mrs Terry’s daughter. The whole excerpt was a masterclass in gripping atmospheric tension, powerfully realised by means of tellingly authentic references to Julie’s father’s past domestic tyranny and controlling behaviour. Images such as the rigidly regimented mealtimes and ritualistic covering of the “never-to-be-seen polished wooden table surface” created a menacing atmosphere of bristling resentment.

Sarah read some observations of an author being introduced to an audience by a librarian, prior to reading from her “dark, Gothic novel”. This was a very effective piece of descriptive writing, with a particularly effectively rendered contrast between the sinister narrative and the writer’s warm friendly personality.

Alan read a story called ‘Cut To The Chase’, about a murder investigation that initially appeared to highlight Tim and Melissa’s young gardener as the prime suspect. Tim, however, affronts the DCI on the case by proving to him, by means of a discourse on the technicalities of lawn mowing using rotary or cylinder mowers, that he’s got the wrong man. The twist to the tale, plus the balance of technical detail and characterisation were enjoyed, with gratifying comparisons being made to Inspector Morse.

Next Meeting: Thursday 19 August, 7.30 pm by Zoom – Note: This day and time subject to confirmation, as the reading meeting may be replaced with a social gathering – see News .

Chair: Dan

Minutes: Heather

Homework Theme: ‘A Summer Party’