Dark Angels Note 151
Dearest Friends
Welcome back to our weekly Friday Note.
Observing
This week marks the birthday of American poet Gwendolyn Brooks (7 June 1917 – 3 December 2000).
Encouraged by her parents to write, her poem Eventide was published in a children’s magazine when she was 13.
She went on to be one of the most widely read and influential poets, and was the first African American poet to win a Pulitzer Prize. Among her other honours, she won a Guggenheim Fellowship and was Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois.
One of our favourite Brooks poems is We Real Cool – which is so cool it spawned a new poetic form, the Golden Shovel.
Reading
“And I don’t know a great deal about art myself…”
When Picasso created a giant sculpture for the Daley Plaza in Chicago, Brooks was commissioned to write a poem for its unveiling.
Read her poem Chicago’s Picasso and her explanation about it here.
Writing
In the above article, Brooks talks about working in the presence of art and that it’s not always easy to explain.
Find a sculpture to look at. In a book, out and about, or in a gallery. Observe it for a few minutes and consider it at face value.
What do you like about it and why?
How do your close observations lead you to a more meaningful understanding about the aesthetic presentation?
And maybe try to write a Golden Shovel of your own. We’d love to see them.
—
Diary
Writing What We Hear, 8 September 2023
Join us for a one-day workshop in Highgate Woods to explore what it means to really listen, and to see how we can use whatever we hear as inspiration for writing.
There is one early bird ticket left, and still some scholar places, for people who can’t afford the normal ticket price just now.
Get your tickets here.
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.
Be well, keep reading, keep writing and know that we’re always here.
From everyone at Dark Angels
Sharing
Keep sending us your poems, writings, links and writerly whatnots that you’d like to share with the wider Dark Angels family. We love to read them.
Here is a piece from Janet Wilkes, a regular at our Tuesday gatherings. It’s from her latest collection, The Loom of Memory. Janet has published the book in memory of Keith, her late husband, and to raise funds for Blesma, a charity that supports veterans who have lost limbs. If her beautiful poem touches you, please consider making a donation: www.blesma.org.
BEACH LIFE AND THE BIG WHEEL
Walking along the shore with the
Wind behind me and mist spraying
My face I see grey splashes of
Salt water rising in front of
Me and falling sheer like a bird
From a tree on a winter’s day.
Could this be the same sea-side I
Remember from long ago when,
As children, we raced the ponies
Along the sand under the pier
And, rememb’ring the incoming
Tide, clambered up over the rocks
And sea-weed until the green slime
Slithered through our fingernails and
We stood, valiant-like, upon
The craggy summit, surveying
All of the land we thought was ours?
Could this cold, grey place with the big
Wheel, that once went round and round with
Happy music but that now stands
Motionless and quiet, and with its
Boarded shops and empty pavements,
Be the same as the place in my
Memory? Or is it I who
Can no longer see it as some-
Where new and exciting, nor want
To linger along the shore with
The wind behind me and a mist
In my face, nor be reminded
Of how long ago it was? But
Only wish to give thanks for that
Time of innocence and fun that
We had all those years ago and
For the beach life and the big wheel
Beside the sea when we were young.