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| Writing Pod at Totleigh Barton |
I'm just back from an inspiring few days at Arvon's Totleigh Barton and feel so lucky to have been tutored by Liz Berry and Ian Duhig. It was a tutored poetry retreat which suited me beautifully as I'm not so good at workshops when you have to write really quickly. The time was my own, to work on my poems, except for one tutorial a day. My room was next to the poetry library, so I had a wonderful time reading, as well as writing.
I'm putting a pamphlet together and was stuck on title and themes. This retreat sorted it all out. The success of these courses is also very dependent on the people involved. This was an amazing group of about 16 and we seemed to get on from the moment we arrived. The tutors were so generous with their time, joined in with everything, gave us so much invaluable help with our work, and we all had a lot of laughs together.
The weather was beautiful, autumn at its most stunning, and Totleigh Barton was magical.
I'm sad it's over but also have lots of ideas for my poems that I want to get started on.
The first weekend of November is the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and I seem to have booked tickets to a huge amount of events. I love this poetry festival. Aldeburgh is a lovely seaside town, with a fascinating musical history, and I'm looking forward to it. But for now, I want to hang on to my memories of Totleigh Barton.
