Nice

I have neglected my blog for the last couple of weeks and above is the reason why. I've been on a fantastic art trip. We were based in Nice and travelled to Vence, St Tropez, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Villefranche, Antibes, Mougins, Vallauris, Biot and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
I wallowed in works by Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Jean Cocteau, Leger, Chagall and many others. I now need to write some poems for my MA which has just started. I do feel truly inspired by the trip and perhaps a glass of Pernod will push the boat further out.

Poetry Workshop

The first Stanza meeting in Portugal was on Thursday and we had a very lively meeting. The group, 12 of us,  were happy to read, write, discuss and generally be involved. I started them off with a writing exercise and then we all read our own poems or poems that we loved. A great discussion got going about free verse versus form...so much so that we are all going to write a sonnet for the next meeting in November. I hope that the group will flourish and not wither by the wayside! I found it very stimulating...

Cambridge

I've had a wonderful week in Cambridge and went to a creative writing workshop at Kettle's Yard. I love the house and all the magic that flows through it. I managed to finish (as much as they are ever finished!)  two poems that started at the workshop. One I've been trying to write as a sonnet which isn't within my comfort zone but I think it's time to put a toe outside. Slant rhymes can be so subtle...if only I could achieve it. I'm going to start a notebook full of slant rhymes and work at my rhymewells.

Stage Fright

Yesterday I did a Voice Day with Susan White who is a drama teacher and voice coach. It was a revelation to me; she taught us with great humour, how to breathe, relax, shout and, above all, read aloud with confidence, putting colour into even the driest piece of text. I can make Credit Derivatives sound like a rose garden! I'm going to arrange a one-to-one session with her as it helped me enormously with my confidence for reading poetry. By the end of the day we were all enjoying reading to the others and we had improved beyond recognition. Thank you Susan!

Aldeburgh Poetry Festival

Just discovered I've got all the tickets I ordered for the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. I'm going to sharpen my pencil to get ready for workshops and readings and put on my running shoes, as I'm going to lots of events in different venues all over Aldeburgh...can't wait. I'll write all about it...
Meanwhile the house is in chaos as I get ready for the start of my MA on October 10th and for my first poetry workshop on October 6th. I have 12 people coming to the workshop which I'm happy with. I'm looking forward to being able to talk poetry with other writers. Meanwhile I'm off to the UK for a drama workshop and I've sneaked in a writers' workshop at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge where I'm going for a few days to stay with my son and family to help with their new baby.

Sonnets

I'm interested in trying to write a crown of sonnets. As I like to write in free verse I wonder if I'll have to call it a crown of 14 liners instead. I'm going to research whether a sonnet really, absolutely, has to rhyme. I've just ordered Tony Harrison's Selected Poems to see if his School of Eloquence sequence of sonnets can give me some answers. That Amazon one click is lethal!

Letters

Had a productive meeting last night with one of my creative writing groups. A member had written a fascinating poem that she'd written using a collection of letters from a friend who was sailing the high seas. It filled me with ideas about some of the letters I have going back to my teenage years. With email, such valuable resources are vanishing.

I have 100's of my mother's poetry books, all of them stuffed with notes and messages. I'd like to research them for a poem but they will take a lot of sorting out, especially as the books are in London and I'm in Portugal. I have visions of Keats twinned with a note such as buy sausages...not very poetic!