Doorway Writing Group February 2018

Doorway Writing Group February 2018

February’s writing group brought us: a crossword – now a fairly popular regular feature among guests and volunteers; two word searches – this time on modes of transport (vehicles and routes, ways of moving around, displacing and relocating ourselves); and phase two of our new ‘key word’ puzzle. Besides encouraging us all to engage with language, all of these word games, of course, also offered the potential to spark conversations – on perhaps the unlikeliest of topics – and even to offer ideas for stories or poems*: an invitation to let go and unleash the creative potential.
At the writing table itself, there was the chance to discuss and borrow from our expanding library of accessible and quick-read literature (a number of guests had a quick browse so let’s watch this space) and the obvious opportunity to put pen – biro or felt tip or even pencil – to paper; the noble J was, of course, only too happy to oblige there.

*For instance, how about writing a story or poem including split pea/split level/split personality or square meal/square root/square peg or even catwalk/cat litter/cat flap? Anyone feeling inspired?

City Foxes (a poem by J)
The city centre
The station, the shops
Factories and businesses
Here perennial weeds
Tenacious groundlings
Find cracks in concrete
Competing with pedestrian soles
Fumes from traffic combustion
The city shuts down
In the fragile hush of night
Foxes forage alone
The way that wildlife
Crosses that frontier
is urban survival!

On the edge (a poem by D)
On the edge
Hedging many a bet
Dipping my toe in
Scarce getting it wet
On the edge
Sitting out for a while
Just talking the talk
And smiling the smile