Writers respond to lockdown
S everyone keeping well? I do hope so.
This lockdown has meant that I have had to get more proficient with social media, not that I ever wanted to really, but it’s been a godsend.
I have to say that the BBC’s Bitesize.com that gives advice on all things digital has been a great help enabling me to keep in contact with the many talented writers of Rochdale and the different way they have chronicled the isolation of lockdown.
Here’s a taste of some of the great stuff being written at the moment.
For a full look at All Across the Arts in the area, have a look at allacrossthearts.com
Ray Stearn, although a resident of Halifax is an honorary Rochdalian.
His poem, The Colour of Isolation written in free verse, is clever, filled with both irony and verbal slapstick humour.
It starts with the line ‘A comb-over of bananas sit in the fruit bowl in the kitchen’.
Who could resist a poem that starts with a line like that!
The third verse contains the pun ‘I’m in the pink, no red alert here’.
But don’t be fooled, this is a serious poem that address’s many issues that affect us all in the current situation.
Michael Higgins chose to remind us of the genius of Geoffrey Chaucer with a short parody of the work, Michael, a life-long student of medieval poetry encouraged us with:
‘And souls sink in selfisolations gloom,
No! Getting through April with its showers that
Did not come until the merry month of May’.
and the hope that soon we shall all
‘Come home to the Tabard inn which serves
Good English beer throughout the English Day’.
Susan Gash sent us a poignant little poem on the subject of searching for happiness, a response to the on-line workshop.
That, in the pursuit of happiness we should
‘instead still To lure the elusive And fleetingly embrace ephemera.
For me I looked at nature for inspiration.
I am fortunate in having a small albeit very scruffy garden. Today, I received a gift, unexpected, amazing. I had no thought of need until,
There, from the fold of slate and gutter a Robin sang. There is so much more on the blog and on the websites of Touchstones, Word Weaver and Langley writers.
For further information and to contribute contact eileen.earnshaw@yahoo. co.uk or stevecswct@ gmail.com