Creative Workshops 06 Summer Writing
Newsletter
Dear
writer
January. The bust of the God, Janus, with the two
faces, stood at the entrance to a Roman house. One face gazed into the
interior, the other looked into the street. As you stand in your doorway, may
the symbols of this season speak in a hundred tongues.
I find
year-end year-begin a time to aestivate (opposite of hibernate, a winter sleep)
says Dic, the writer’s companion, “Spend the summer
in torpor; arrangement of petals in flower bud before expansion.”
I
dream of many conversations with many of you, in workshops, in mentoring, in
readings, in restaurants, on hiking paths, at launches. I feel like Seamus Heaney’s “rich man entering heaven on the ear of a
raindrop.”
I
think of the books arriving round this time from folk I’ve worked with, self
published - Graham Ellis and his District
Six An Ordinary Day (his poems and photographs)
launched in the District Six museum in Nov. And Raymond Reichman-Israelsohn’s
The Blade of
Grass and the Footprint of the Calf, The Mind and
Heart of God to be
launched in late January. I’m proud of both o’ you.
I hope
to hold two books in my fingers before June ... Drawing Water, sixty poems through Neill Stevenson’s Leopard Press
– and a joint venture with Graham Williams – working title??? The Halo and the Noose, the Power of
Story-listening/story-telling in Business life. (I have heard that in mid
June a giant arrives in
for me… a
time of reading… from Frank Delaney’s
The Storyteller’s mouth had grown a frill
of saliva, a surf on the tide of words. (He grew)
larger in his chair as the black cloak swelled to the size of a conjurer’s
cloak and all the characters in the story sprang from its folds.
and of
writing…. I have been thinking of little known Joseph in the Christmas
story. Within Judaism there is the Midrash, the imaginary fleshing of the skeleton
of a story. In Writing Past Dark,
Bonnie Friedman reminds us, “Fiction must convince our bodies, before it has
any chance of convincing our minds.”
The Afterbirth Star
with the baby born
and the Christmas star faded,
Joseph swaddled the
afterbirth
and the umbilical worm in a cloth.
he kicked aside the straw
with his foot and staff.
among the cow dung, the slops
from the drinking trough,
he dug a hole with his sandal,
deepened it with a shepherd’s crook
and a piece of found flint,
inching into winter ground.
he placed rednest
and eggshell,
into that black hole, patting the
soil.
and when they had packed
and ambled the donkey off
this sac shone in the constellation
of rock, clay and all things
earth.
…and so the Jan-March 06 workshops… including a scattering of mini half day ones… If there are
specific workshop themes you would like in your area,
perhaps I could trundle my story-wagon your way?
I’m grateful to those who pass on this
letter to writing friends.
Unsubscribe if you need to.
Letters
to the Divine: a Writing and Lettering Workshop
Sat 28 Jan 09.30 – 16.30 R390
(with calligrapher Anne-Marie Moore)
We write poems, praise passages, songs, stories, prayers,
chants and calligraphy them.
Explore the art of letters as a ritual. Join your letters to those of
the mystics of every faith who have celebrated the divine.
Words, You and your Story: A Creative Writing Workshop
Sun 29 January 09.30 –13.00 (R220) (half day)
This mini-workshop is about getting in
touch with the writer inside you. We explore our creativity and imagination and
find the words to tell those stories… to make them more alive. The workshop
also focuses on how to be present in your writing, find your voice and engage
the reader.
..for beginners
and for those who wish to reconnect to words as they enter 2006. People working
on life stories, poetry, fiction, articles will benefit.
Both J’burg
workshops at
Words, You and your Story A Creative Writing Workshop
Sat 4 Feb
14.00 –17.30 (R210)
(half
day)
(see J’burg one for details - venue 4
My Life, my
Death: A Writing and Story-telling Workshop (R360)
Sun
5 Feb
09.30 -16.30
(with Peter Fox, co-author of Dying, A Practical Guide for the Journey)
We’re
constantly in the flow of life and death. In this workshop we celebrate our
life and befriend our death. Myths,
stories and poetry guide us for the day.
Venue: Southern suburbs
Words, You and your Story: A Creative Writing Workshop
Sat 18 February 09.30 –16.00 (R290) (full day)
(see J’burg one for details: venue 24 Impala Cres La Lucia)
The
The River
Journey: Writing Retreat at Vaaloewer
Sat and Sun 18 and 19 March 09.30 -16.00 (R780)
I do
not know much about gods; but … the river Is a strong
brown god (T S Eliot)
On this retreat you explore your life
stories through your connection to nature. We draw images and symbols from the
river and the landscape around it. We create and craft our writing journey.
There will be time for silence, bird watching and for dreaming.
Travelling time – 100ks ex J’burg. B
& B is available at reasonable rates
Contact: Dorian or Sandy Drew tdfsys@pixie.co.za 016 987 8194
Sandy Drew, who hosts this weekend, also
runs Spiritual Journey workshops. She has been on spiritual pilgrimages to
At year-begin, may
you put down a path of words that leads you to your doorway.
be well
Dorian
There are wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain.
Others are too deep for that.
(Hafiz)
Dr Dorian
Haarhoff
021 852 7587 / 082 873 6802
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com
Marais Street