Creative
Workshops 2006 December Writing Newsletter
Dear writer
Incubation
Writers are often asked where they get
ideas. One response is going into silence. Caitlin Matthews in Singing the Soul back Home, reminds us
of the Gaelic poets who practiced as shamans do:
Master-poets gave their pupils a subject
for composition and then the pupils would retire to the “houses of darkness”, where
they lay unseeing, without communication, often with a large stone on their
stomachs to keep them wakeful. In this darkness, they would track the
composition down the pathways of metaphor and poetic pattern.
The
image stirred in me and I responded with this version:
The Stone on the Stomach
in the Celtic twilight
Gaelic poets incubated
the silhouette of a poem.
the master offered aspirants
the subject for composition,
matched to the movement
of frequencies and fingerprints.
each bard retired to a place
womb-dark, moon-dark,
lay awake alone, with a stone
pressed to the stomach
to keep watchful, balanced.
slowly they divined shapes
beneath lids and lips.
the pattern, rhyme and rhythm
fell and rose, riding their chests.
images breathed inner into outer.
as the sun touched huts and hearts
they rose and stretched limbs
long as lines, and delivered,
apprentice to the words within.
Poem Poem Poem (PPP) Making Poetry
News…. news… WWW will have sister. …a new
email four month poetry course (March-June 07) Bob Commin, poet,
writer, storyteller, pastor, and I will be running this. There will be a syllabus (poets to be savoured), input on poetic
technique (rhythm, image, cadence, metre, rhyme) an assignment section and
group conversations around your work. Any one interested?
Write Write Write:
Writers’ Development: Email Course (WWW)
The second WWW ends on 30 Nov. Thanks to
those brave hearts who shared their lives and texts. For many this is the
beginning of a writing commitment. I recall once upon a workshop, somebody said
she’d come along thinking this was a one night stand with words. It became a
long-time love affair.
Time to firm up bookings for the next WWW
(Feb-May 07). Elma who works with me on this, mentors our Afrikaans clients and some of
the English ones too. She also offers life coaching. (Elma’s email starlight@wol.co.za.
084 868 2908)
Working in Schools
I’m working at two schools – Reddham House
talking on creative stress and then I’ll spend two days as ‘Writer in Residence’ (lekker title) at St Mary’s DSG,
in Kloof.
Launch of Drawing Water
My poetry collection of 63 poems in my 63
year – will be launched in Feb in Egoli, (Feb date to follow)
Workshops … reaching into 2007
Somerset West, Egoli and
The River Journey: Using Images to Enrich your Writing
Keep writing in the dark…
Words that may have the power
to make the sun rise again
(Denise Levertov)
As human beings we are forever comparing.
(“My love is like a red red rose.”) And when we compare, we stumble on hidden
connections.
This workshop is about using imagery in
our writing. An image is a bolt of energy from the writing blue. It’s about
developing a new way of seeing that opens to adventure. For images are about
the unexpected. We consider how words create new realities.
Beginner writers are welcome.
Venues to be announced
Dates:
Egoli Sun 4 or 11 Feb R420 (date depending on
corporate story work)
Men, Women and Masks (with Bob Commin)
16-18 March
Fri eve to Sun after lunch in the hills of Ixopo…
KZN Ixopo Buddhist Retreat
Centre 039 834 1863 brcixopo@futurenet.co.za
The true purpose of masks is not
concealment but transformation. A culture of masks is one that understands the
process of metamorphosis (Salman Rushdie)
This journey involves mask
making, writing, story-telling, poetry and land art. We explore
the masks that we wear in relation to each other. Over this weekend men
meet men, women meet women and then men and women meet in
dialogue. We will seek in nature items to adorn our masks.
Please bring crayons, pastels, glue, masking tape.
Looking into autumn…. The Helderberg
Writing Escape (
1-6 May 07 (see Nov 06
Jo Castro and I had much fun with the 2006
group. Join Jo and me for our five day writing extravaganza. Once again, we’ll be writing and mentoring at a wine farm and in
the Helderberg Nature Reserve. The escape offers exploration and discovery and personal attention as we live the life of writers. Jo is an international
freelance journalist who coaches in the genres of magazine writing, travel and
copywriting.
Mentoring
Each mentoring moves in its own pace,
terrain and rhythm in the triangle of writer, mentor and work. This month I
worked alongside Sonja Kable on her water-coloured fynbos manuscript for
children. Watch out for the elves. Maggie Fikkert has nearly completed the
draft of her teenage novel set in the cradle of mankind. Congratulations to
Cathy Yuiil on her Masters in Coaching. Thank you all for these conversations.
Tredicis in the
Paul and Fadelah host Hugh Hodge’s Off the Wall Poetry readings - last Wed
of every month. (hahodge@gmail.com). I’ll be it 29 Nov. Reading from my about
to be published Drawing Water.
Remember the Between the Covers
Story-Telling evening first Thurs of every month. Dave and Jo Castro will be
a-telling on 7 Dec. 19.30 Both these evenings begin with an invited poet /
story-teller then it’s open mike time. And that cuisine…
As we move into December, perhaps we too
are into a season of incubation. Of birth. Balance that stone star on your
stomach.
Dorian
PS Thank you to all those who circulate this letter. Sign off if you need to.
PPS Please note change of land line and
address below.
Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086
511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com