Dark Angels Note 49
Dearest friends,
Welcome back to our writerly thoughts to distract, inspire and reassure you. Be well, keep reading, keep writing and know that we’re always here..
1. Writing
Northern Ireland has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, but all the right ones too. Between the riots and the women’s football team qualifying for the Euros, the place never gets any less dichotomous. That’s the thing about place, it’s never all one thing or the other, no matter how rose-coloured the spectacles.
After reading Heaney’s poem below, write your own “At…Where…” poem. Look for a place in your mind’s eye, somewhere familiar that has influenced the person you are today. Try to be as specific as you can.
Choose one of these places and write your own poem.
2. Reading
At Toombridge
Where the flat water
Came pouring over the weir out of Lough Neagh
As if it had reached an edge of the flat earth
And fallen shining to the continuous
Present of the Bann.
Where the checkpoint used to be.
Where the rebel boy was hanged in ’98.
Where negative ions in the open air
Are poetry to me. As once before
The slime and silver of the fattened eel.
Seamus Heaney
From Electric Light, Faber & Faber (2001)
3. Sharing
So She Turned, Full Circle
The rising moon slowly swelled,
pushing the edges
of its milky circumference,
then split
and splintered in her eye.
In the deepest primal curve of her,
a surging synergy, laid low,
arced and ached in response,
asking once more, with infinite patience,
to be loved for its service,
to be honoured for its wisdom,
to simply be
allowed to be
in this, the final swirling throes
of its corporeal existence.
Gleaming crystals danced
in saltwater
as her mind, newly subdued,
left her heart finally free
to witness the plea.
So
she let her spine crack
open, exploding
aeons of pulsating energy;
eternal cycles of yearning, finally
released into sacred
reflected light.
Rowena Roberts
4. Gathering
Join us via Zoom for an hour of writing and talking with other Dark Angels. We meet at 7pm UK time every Tuesday. Click here on the night. There’s no need to register in advance and we’ll be using the same link every week from now on. There’s no charge. And feel free to bring a friend along.
5. Workshopping
Elen and Gillian will be hosting an online day of writing on June 9th. We’ll be playing with techniques in storytelling, tone and voice, vivid language and much more. Even if you’ve done a Starter Day before, this will be a creative day of practical exercises in the company of a small group of 6-8 people. You’d be very welcome.
From everyone at Dark Angels