Archive for January 2017

Oooh it was cold last night, proper brass monkey weather.  No one is going to turn out in this I figured, but how I misjudged you wgwg'ers.  Six other brave souls arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed for more literary high jinks.

First off was Judith with more tales of the amazing Dogo.  He has now left Victoria station and is staggering towards Westminster Cathedral, catching a couple of cockroaches engaging in a little cannibalistic activity on the way. Urgh.  I love hearing about his adventures but I sure wouldn't want to be him. I know I've said it before, but what a truly wonderful one off character Judith has produced in Dolgo.

Next up was David who wrote a lovely piece concerning memory. It was a sort of before and after affair with a slightly melancholy air.  Beautifully written, I hope that his writing course liked it as much as we did.

Then newby Daniel ( he came back!) read his poem.  We were at a disadvantage because he had no copies, but we managed to go ahead without them.  I don't think we caught all the nuances of his poem as we couldn't see it, but he has a lively style and he promises us copies next time.  It was a sort of companion piece to his last reading, with this one set in the cold.  Such a sense of cold and freezing he produced!  I really hope he does bring copies next time because his work is interesting but it's difficult to catch hold of on one hearing, thus making feedback difficult. His is a very dense rhyming style that puts me in mind of Malory.

Clare has a new story that is coming along well.  Families are always difficult and I sense that the father/daughter relationship in this story is not going anywhere good. Brilliant writing as always.

Ibra was reading for the first time.  His native language is French and he has had to translate the poems into English with a little help from Sita.  The poems sparked much debate about language and translation.  They are quite dense and I don't pretend to understand some of them, but I hope he brings more of them along!

First group of 2017! How apt then, to have only one first timer, who had something to read, and two regular facilitators who didn't*. We waited a bit for more people then  embarked on Daniel's lyrical traipse through the forest. It must be pretty intense to be subjected to the full concentrated force of only two critque-ers but he handled it really well. We didn't scare him off we hope! He did say he'll come back.

See you all at the next one on the 19th.

*Why break the habit, eh?