Musings on a walk

A bitterly cold walk by the river this afternoon with my dog, just as a wintery sun was going down. It was very atmospheric and started me thinking about how weather and surroundings become characters in their own right in fiction, and how they interact on the page with their human counterparts.

This was very evident in the book I have just finished reading, "Nightmare in Berlin" written by Hans Fallada. If you haven't come across it, it's well worth having a look at. It was published in German in 1947 but has only recently been translated for the English-speaking market. Based on the author's own experience at the end of the Second World War, it recounts the hellish situation in which a writer, Doctor Doll, and his wife find themselves on returning to Berlin from a small town in the country. The devastated social and physical environment and the freezing winter weather with which they must contend assume the role of aggressors, effectively thwarting any attempt at getting life back on the rails there. The couple sink into total despondency and apathy, living only for the morphine addiction they have both developed. That there is a ray of hope at the end of it all speaks volumes for the ability of humans to overcome even the most adverse of circumstances. A fascinating read.

"Such things as dreams are made on"

If I thought life was out to get me last week - it definitely was this! Car problems, a nasty bout of some viral infection and an overlooked and rapidly approaching deadline. Fortunately the car is now sorted, the infection is clearing and I've managed (by a very tight margin) to write the monologue for a Christmas revue in which I'm taking part.

The very vivid dreams I had a few nights ago were probably a result of the high temperature from the infection. At Swanwick earlier this year I took part in a fascinating workshop entitled "Poetry From Dreams" and I've been keeping a dream diary intermittently since. One or two of the entries in it have yielded some interesting ideas for poems but a lot of my  dreams seem very mundane. I couldn't get last week's dreams down quickly enough though - surreal images were coming so thick and fast even in a half-waking state, trying to make sense of them from my bedside note book is an interesting challenge!

Onwards and upwards ...

A disconcerting week on so many fronts - certainly on the international one, and, on home ground, illness and a bereavement making for family difficulties. So when my IT kit decided to present major issues too, I was beginning to feel that life was definitely getting the better of me! But I've spent some time this evening reviewing the situation with the family chronicles and have pleasantly surprised myself by finding that I'm actually not too far off target with the first draft. Six weeks and probably another 10,000 - 15,000 words to go though, so no resting on the laurels! But evidence of progress is certainly a great motivator.

The Quakers of Painswick

On Monday I was touched and also very humbled to be invited to the Friends Meeting House in Painswick by a long standing Quaker, Dr. Jim Hoyland. He had found a poem I had written after a visit to the town last year; wandering around the lovely old streets there, I had come across the Meeting House and looked out over the valley to the old Quaker burial ground on the hillside opposite. The story of the early Friends struck a chord with me and a couple of weeks later I wrote the poem.

At the Meeting House I found a framed copy of my poem on display - and to know that a piece of mine had resonated so much with those about whom it had been written was a very moving experience.

A bit of judicious pruning ...

In no way could I claim to be a keen gardener, but I spent a useful hour or so this afternoon beginning the autumn clear up in the back garden. As I was hacking back over-enthusiastic clematis and jasmine, it occurred to me that perhaps this was a bit like editing poems - a necessary activity to get the best out of something. Looking around afterwards, that little bit of care and attention had revealed the real shape of the plants and showed them to much better advantage. It's taken me a while to learn that poems often need a bit of cutting back too, but I'm certainly getting better now at putting a poem aside for a while, then coming back to it with the proverbial "red pen" to tighten things up - and it invariably reads all the better for it!

Friends old and new

It's been a stressful week with some major family traumas. I'm so aware that at times of crisis - and of loss especially - I turn more and more these days to poetry books and my "old friends" in them. "The Book Of Love And Loss" edited by Rosie Bailey and June Hall (Belgrave Press) is a great bedside companion in those circumstances; I've given a copy to friends in similar situations and know how much they've valued it too.

I've had a birthday during this last week as well though, and a lovely present from my daughter - "Whatever The Sea, Scottish Poems for Growing Older" edited by Lizzie MacGregor (The Scottish Poetry Library and Polygon 2016). About ageing they may be, but these poems are not all full of gloom and doom! Far from it - they certainly recognize the challenges of ageing but celebrate the positives too - many are witty and very life-affirming. Do have a look at a copy if you can - and I promise you won't have to be "ageing" to enjoy it!

The GWN at the Lit Fest

It was a lovely evening on Sunday at the Gloucestershire Writers Network event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival - as always, superbly organised by Rona Laycock. We had a very appreciative audience for our readings and the pleasure of hearing judge Phil Kirby's poetry afterwards. And I'm delighted to say that, as the winner of the poetry section, I'm once more the keeper of the Dursley Hare for twelve months! His origin seems to have disappeared in the mists of time but he's a delightful little statue and comes along with the monetary reward (which, I'm glad to report, does not have to be passed on to the next winner!). Last time I had the hare sitting on my desk he proved a very lucky writing mascot, so I'm hoping for a repeat performance this year.

This morning I was invited to read my winning poem and to talk about my writing on Corinium Radio, along with Judith van Dijkhuizen and Derek Healy, both runners up in the poetry section, and Graham Bruce Fletcher, a runner-up in the prose competition. The theme this year had been "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" and it was fascinating to see the different angles from which people had approached it, with poems on such varied topics as a disabled father giving away his daughter at her wedding to non-native giant conifers, and short stories told in such diverse voices as those of a weary Russian emigree and an unmanned drone!