Dark Angels Note 118

Dearest Friends—

Welcome back to our weekly Friday Note. Your eyes and ears are in for a treat… 

Observing

This week, we are celebrating (albeit a day late) National Poetry Day.

“National Poetry Day is the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends. Each year we come together because voices, words and stories help to bridge understanding in our community.”

This year’s theme is The Environment. To honour this, we have put together a little collection of favourite poems from some of the Dark Angels family based around the theme. 

Watching

Read by Neil: ‘How I go to the woods’ Mary Oliver. Read by Gillian: ‘The Peace of Wild Things’ Wendell Berry 

Reading

From John: ’Stopping By Woods’  Robert Frost  From Richard: ‘The Blind Leading the Blind’ Lisel Mueller. From Elen: ‘Last Poem’ Emily Berry. From Jamie: ‘Come To The Edge’ Christopher Logue.  

Writing

National Poetry Day’s call to action this year is to write or find a poem about the environment. What would you like to celebrate or speak out about? Create a poem of protest or praise about the environment. 

We Are Nature

A magical five days in the hills of Andalucía renewed deep connections to souls, senses and soil. Those blissful days also produced remarkable writing that we'll share over the coming weeks. One piece to read (or listen to) now is The truth about living in interesting times written in Aracena by Johnny Lyons. Thanks to Johnny for agreeing to share it; thanks to Claire Bodanis for publishing it on the always thought-provoking Falcon Windsor blog. This is an important piece of writing for our times.We'll be offering more writing and nature connection experiences in 2023. If you’d like an early heads-up, drop Neil an email now. 

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Diary 

Weekly Tuesday Gatherings
Join us for a reflective hour of reading, writing and communing led by Neil Baker. Everyone is welcome; in fact, invite a friend along. We meet at 7pm UK time. To join us, 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. 

26 Orphans: Creative Writing Workshop
As part of a project for writers’ group 26 with the Foundling Museum in London, devised by John and called 26 Orphans, John & Neil will be running a creative workshop based on Dark Angels thinking.The workshop will be in the morning and in the afternoon there will be a tour of the museum with readings from some of the 26 writers involved. And it’s all part of the Bloomsbury Festival on Saturday 22 October.You can find out more and book a ticket here through the Foundling Museum. 

Writing With Constraints: London, 9 November
One way to make writing easier is to make it harder. That sounds illogical, but putting some obstacles in the way of your writing can be a great way to get the creative juices flowing.Whether you are a first timer, an experienced writer or all-round creative person, this will be an enjoyable and rewarding workshop. Find out more about the Writing with constraints workshop on the website. 

Be well, keep reading, keep writing and know that we’re always here.

From everyone at Dark Angels