Attendees:
Liz - Chair, Kath, Jennie, Martin, Sue, John, Kay, Marie and a
contribution from Adam read by Liz.
It was lovely to see Kay and John return to our group, and we hope they
will both attend as many future meetings as possible.
Liz set us an exercise – our life story in five sentences. This was surprisingly challenging.
Marie’s offering was entitled Culture Shock,
although on re-reading this I feel the title doesn’t match the content, but
heigh-ho, I will aim to do better next time. Mine started with being born in
Australia, moved to Wales in UK aged 7, horrible teachers and boarding schools,
marrying a New Zealander and having a daughter.
Sue was born in Wolverhampton, met her
husband at Hull university, trained as a teacher, lived in Brighton, Watford,
Luton and is now back in Wolverhampton.
Martin has firmly settled in Bridgnorth,
having been born here, however his piece had an unusual slant, from the
viewpoint of standing looking through the windows of his house, a quarter turn
at a time, to four locations: his first house, where he was born, where he went
to school and finishing with where he might be buried.
Jennie’s memories started with living over the
family shop in Yorkshire, then university, moving to Bridgnorth after London
and recovering from her brain tumour.
John started in Warwickshire, then
Shropshire, Yorkshire and back to Shropshire, having a bookshop in Bridgnorth
which several members of this group remembered, then back to Yorkshire before
settling in Bridgnorth.
Kay travelled from the Netherlands to
France and back to England before she was 16, then to Norway, and is now
settled in Knighton on the Welsh border, but feels she is still on life’s
journey.
Liz was born in Bristol and remembers the
smells of coffee shops and the bombsites left from the war. Like many others in
this group, she moved locations from home in Dorset to university in Reading then back and forth
between London, Kano and Lagos before eventually landing in Shropshire in 1995 to be near
her mother.
Liz explained that the exercise had been to get people thinking about
the writing theme for March – ‘Belonging’ – It doesn’t just have to be about
belonging in a geographical sense, not just ‘where’ we belong but ‘who’ and
‘what’ sort of activities/ways of thinking etc we feel a sense of belonging
with.
We shared a poem found by Sue to illustrate how we might approach the
theme. It was a poem by Roz Warner. The poem is entitled ‘If coal was sand,’
and is about a temporary beach in Bilston and the fun children had there.
We then shared our February writing on the theme of
Love.
Adam was absent and Liz read out his
homework entitled ‘Charged Emotions.’ This was about broken-hearted Cara crying
on the Long Mynd, unable to face ex-boyfriend Jack who she saw riding towards
her on his horse. This piece was descriptive and we could feel Cara’s grief.
Marie wrote about things she loves –
family, friends, pets, sunshine and that giving gifts gives pleasure.
Jennie read the poem she wrote about
dancing being her first love.
John sang a beautiful love song he wrote
and played a haunting tune on his guitar. Kay remarked that it was beautiful
imagery.
Kay read that love varies in
depth, shape and form.
Kath related the history of Valentine’s
Day and the involvement of the Roman emperor Claudius. Valentine was also the
patron saint of beekeepers. The oldest known reference to St. Valentine was in
1497 in a love letter.
Sue read us a fun poem based on a
Jamaican market. She set her pupils the task of devising a poem in rhyming
couplets about Bilston market. It was fast-paced and amusing and we now know
the range of products sold in there.
Martin read ‘Another Wonderful Year.’ This
is a poem he wrote to his wife. It was lovely and ends, ‘This is the love of
another year.’
Liz read us her piece, ‘Meandering
Thoughts on St Valentine’s Day 2021.’ This was a reflective account of the fear
that seeps into our lives when we don’t fully understand something, such as HIV
pandemic in the 80s and the treatment towards people who were gay. Love’s
opposite is fear. It was extremely moving.
Jennie read ‘Secrets.’ Lena married Rob,
however Rob had a fearful secret, that Lena was his cousin and that they
shouldn’t have children. After carrying his guilt for years, he finally divulged
his fears to his wife who dumbfounded him with the revelation that she was
adopted. Jennie built up the intrigue and finished with a twist and happy
ending.
Jennie also read ‘How I love my Garden.’
Nothing transcends the beauty of flowers.
John sang another song he wrote,
accompanied by the guitar ‘Chanson Fevrier.’
Kath showed us the Environment Magazine in
which an article with her bio and photo was included. The article will be
published online for International Women’s Day.
Martin told us about a programme he heard
about voice training and confidence before speaking to a group of people.
Counting backwards from 3, lowering the resonance of the voice with each number
helps to lower the voice. Stating the following before facing a group of people
inspires confidence: ‘I am beautiful; I have a secret; Everybody loves me.’
Martin also read a poem he wrote a while
ago for a friend whose beloved dog had died. ‘The Love of a Dog’ was bitter-sweet,
being both funny and mournful, remembering the ‘bouncing bundle’ and ended with
‘A lead lies waiting,’ and the oft repeated, ‘Just one more walk.’ Having had
to have a dog put to sleep myself I appreciate the heartbreak and was moved to
tears.
Liz suggested that any ‘animal’ related writing be submitted to the
blogspot for publication. She already has a piece about a horse from Jennie.
Martin read us ‘Midnight Seamstress’ a
thought-provoking poem about Covid deaths around the world.
Martin told us about Julian Elcock,
principal of the Pauline Quirk Academy, who runs Bridgnorth TV and may
interview one of HTW members about the activities of High Town Writers. His
Facebook group is easy to find.
Martin also told us that it should be
possible to link HTW’s blog to Soundcloud. https://m.soundcloud.com
The next homework’s theme is Belonging.
The next meeting will be on 23rd March at 7.30 pm via Zoom. Jennie
will chair and I will write up the notes. Invitations have already been sent
out so if you haven’t received the email please contact Marie. A request has
been made that John plays more of his own songs.
Also, the notes of the last meeting requested that Martin reads another
extract from his novel.
Notes written up by Marie Sever.
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