PRESENT: Liz, Natasha, Catherine, Alan, Harry, Nathan, Sarah, Simona, Keith

APOLOGIES: Heather

NEWS:

1. The Summer Party will take place during the August meeting. Members are encouraged to bring and read short, fun, summer-themed pieces. A separate email will be sent to coordinate food and drink contributions. Everyone is warmly encouraged to attend.

2. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held during the September meeting. During this session, the group’s financial situation will be reviewed and voted on. Nominations for available committee roles should be submitted ahead of the Summer Party in August.

READINGS:

NATASHA shared a short story titled “It Takes a Village.” Simona praised the context and setup but suggested the piece would benefit from less telling and more showing, along with stronger tension building. Harry felt Natasha’s descriptive writing excels in texture and noted her strength in developing real, believable characters, though he observed some overuse of pronouns. Alan recommended incorporating more dialogue to help express the protagonist’s emotions more vividly.

SIMONA presented a flash fiction piece under 500 words, intended to evoke an unsettling morning experience. Harry appreciated the internal dialogue, describing it as believable, though he critiqued the use of capitalisation and found the onomatopoeia a bit weak. Keith felt the tension was effectively sustained and remarked on the story’s ambiguity between the real and the surreal. Sarah commented that the story captured something familiar but framed it in a way that felt disorienting. Alan saw an intentional leaning into themes of schizophrenia. Liz praised the immediacy and concise delivery, noting that the initial relaxed tone gave way to tension in a well-balanced manner.

CATHERINE read her poem “Hey Google,” written in iambic pentameter. Inspired by her interactions with AI and poetic form, the piece cleverly mimicked an AI-generated style. She also compared it with an actual AI-generated poem, which was widely criticized for its lack of depth and weak metaphors. In contrast, Catherine’s poem was considered creative and entertaining. Harry particularly enjoyed the final lines, which captured the essence of an artificial voice in a witty and impactful way.

NATHAN presented a dark nursery rhyme on the theme of “Feeling Small,” written as a personal challenge. Alan remarked that the poem seemed to call for illustrations, while Keith admired Nathan’s courage in exploring a new style. Liz welcomed the shift in his writing approach. Nathan also read a haiku titled “Return.” Liz found the final line possibly too cryptic, which sparked a lively group discussion on its meaning.

KEITH shared three thematically linked poems centered on deities. The first, “Deities,” questioned accepted notions of faith and was received as thought-provoking. The second poem, “Pharaoh Poet,” speculated on why Tutankhamun’s tomb remained untouched for so long. The third, “When Dinosaurs Got Together,” humorously explored how sentient dinosaurs might have perceived religion. Harry noted the Nietzschean undertones, especially in the first poem, and related to its commentary on atheism. Cathy found the inconsistent rhyming patterns in poems two and three a bit distracting, while Simona enjoyed the playful imagination behind the dinosaur poem.

ALAN read his short story “Heavy Presence.” Harry complimented the realistic, quippy dialogue, which he felt carried the strength of the piece. Simona mentioned she liked the name of the dog, and Catherine found the story grounded and believable due to the natural flow of the dialogue.

LIZ read a poem she wrote at age 17, which Simona described as having an archaic tone yet a light touch. Catherine agreed with this impression. Liz then shared two found poems created during a workshop, inspired by a library and its contents. Simona found the imagery, especially around the use of cards, hard to connect with. Keith and Harry observed that the found poetry format has limitations and noted some lines felt clichéd. Catherine appreciated the exercise as a creative prompt but felt the final pieces didn’t stand strongly on their own without explanation.

HARRY concluded the session by reading a poem which he intends to include in his upcoming anthology, titled ‘The Beating Drums’. Keith expressed some disappointment that the poem depicted a quiet acceptance of death instead of a defiant, rallying spirit. Alan asked what motivates the characters to carry on, to which Harry responded that it’s the raw sense of life itself—the one force keeping them moving forward. Catherine appreciated the ironic contrast between the image of beating war drums and the quiet resignation, noting that the poem handled this theme effectively. Liz also thought it was powerfully written and well executed.

Next meeting: Summer Party, 21 of August, St Mary’s Church, Horsell.

Homework: Rewrite an overused line, ‘every cloud has a silver lining’, in a more artistic/poetic and original way, in less than 50 words.