Spring and New Writing
Thank you for reading or listening to my memoir, Handmade. As always, thank you so much for your support (and for those who subscribed as a one-off please don't forget to unsubscribe and do contact me if you have any problem with that). I'm thrilled to say that with the latest donation amounting to £115.28, this newsletter and my memoir Handmade has so far raised £429.46, for Medicins Sans Frontieres.
I know that Handmade can be a challenging read and I understand if you decided not to embark on it, or to continue with it. I wish I could have presented it to you with more white space allowing time to take it in, fragment by fragment.
Please know I will treasure all the messages, both private and public that I've received. It's reassuring and affirming to know that it has touched you as readers. When I saw Part One, published, I felt exposed and vulnerable. I toughened up and got used to it. I'm now happy to have it out in the world.
"Even happiness is made by writing something down then leaving it exposed for all to see." Victoria Chang - with my back to the wall
I have to admit though that I'm glad and somewhat relieved to have it behind me, and it's good to be back here in familiar territory with my fortnightly newsletter. It occurs to me now that early spring was a good time to publish Handmade; spring being a marker of new beginnings, an opportunity to start over, time to shake off the winter darkness and embrace the light of a new season. A time to honour the gods. A time to celebrate Hanami, to sit beneath the cherry blossom reflecting on life, which brings me to something of a confession and correction. Throughout my memoir and in this newsletter I’ve mentioned my neighbour's apple tree, now blooming profusely. Last week however I discovered talking to him that the apple is in fact a cherry. I'm rather ashamed that I didn't know or couldn't tell the difference. Nevertheless I love having it fill a good half of my study window and I spend a lot of time contemplating and enjoying it.
I'm excited to see everything springing to life in the garden and equally to savour the ideas springing up in my writing mind. It is as if they have been holding back in abeyance and are now free to flourish. This is a special time for a writer, the hiatus between finishing a long project and embarking on a new. It is full of possibilities some of which will inevitably fall by the wayside, others of which will persist. In this between time I have embarked on a long poem about walking in the Himalaya. I also have two or three drafts of other poems in progress and I've discovered a lot of older poems that I’d completely forgotten about and that need going back to. On the poetry front I've been reading Victoria Chang's, with my back to the wall which has much to say about the creative process, about vulnerability and reconciling with criticism, about language itself. It defies easy reading but is full of thoughts and ideas I find I want to go back to and make a copy of.
On the subject of reading, I’ve recently finished Whale Fall by, Elizabeth O'Connor which totally captivated me. The setting and voice left me longing to write something as powerful possibly in first person or very close third. In this sense it was inspirational which just goes to show the power of other writing or art to inspire us, and how much as writers we need to read.
I'm hoping to inspire others at my upcoming Found Poetry Wordfest Workshop on Wednesday the 30th of April (you can register via the link, all are welcome, especially beginners ) where I'll be talking about making found poetry, in this case from historical text. I'm always happy to run a workshop and be with others interested in writing. I’m also especially looking forward to this workshop as the subject feeds into my own thinking about the possible next big project, which centres around the gift of an idea given me by my friend D who is a painter. I see it as a novel or novella, (narrative poem even) involving characters living in 18th century Durham City, set in the vicinity of the cathedral and the riverbank… More of this another time, but my current feeling is that it definitely has legs as they say, and I'm excited by the idea which is always a good sign.
In the meantime, I've embarked on writing short poems and presenting them on illustrations from an old book. I've had this book: Portraits of Wild Flowers by Elsa Felsko for some time. I've recently taken it apart as carefully as I can (please don't lynch me) to use for this project. I got the idea from Maria Popova's bird poems, though at the time I knew nothing about her method for writing which she describes here. I'm not sure I've devised a method. I like the idea of short poems or lines from longer poems not necessarily directly related to the flower itself, though the one pictured below does… Pulmonaria has survived thirty eight years in my garden.
As you can see I've been playing and this in itself has been a cause for celebration, after the long difficult months of memoir writing.
I hope you’re playing too. I hope you’re enjoying your reading, or your writing, and if you’re looking for inspiration then please join me on 30th - it’s a FREE event.
Finally I’d like to share with you just two of the beautiful messages I received about Handmade:
Avril, “You pick out your own song from the uproar line by line, and at last throw back your head and sing it.” Denise Levertov
… the honesty of the story is transcendent. On first hearing Blue, Kris Kristofferson apparently said "keep something for yourself.” Joni M has said her lyrics made people nervous, people thought she was too intimate, too honest. Well, as all of us now know, she is the true artist not her detractors.
Thanks for reading
Avril x