Creative
Workshops 2008
June
Writing Newsletter
as sun
and earth and moon
circle one another in their impeccable orbits
… I get more and more cockeyed with gratitude. (Billy Collins)
Dear
writer
I dedicate this letter to those of you I
meet in my work as facilitator, mentor, friend - folk
who arrive at the writing cross-roads rich and nuanced in your stories, seeking
images for your aliveness, Travellers who have encountered death by drowning,
lightening flashes, mental mazes, who like Hamlet have experienced the thousand
natural shocks that flesh is heir to. Who read their lives lightly with
paradox, symbol irony, humour and intent.
As a teenager I came across a Stephen Spender poem. I invoke it for you all.
I think continually of those who were
truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.
What is precious is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless
springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.
Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how these names are feted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life
Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.
Born of the sun they travelled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.
I
too am cockeyed with gratitude. Thank you for laying your myth down alongside
mine so we can converse.
Dorian’s Workshops
June/July
Metaphors
and Therapy: talk for medical and mental health professions
Thurs`12 June 19.00- (Psych Forum) contact Ret Steyn
021 555 4248
Poetry Positive: a poetry workshop for all working with
HIV/Aids
Sat 14 June 10.00 -13.00 (if you wish to sponsor an aspirant poet/s,
please chat to me)
Sun 15 June mid day slot CCC Cape Town International
Book Fair no cost
I
have learned that stories are powerful. You can hide the positive in your heart
and take it out when you are scared or broken-hearted. Stories give you a way
of talking about your problems. (a caregiver)
Stories
feed the heart, mind and spirit. This talk focuses on how to use writing,
story-telling, symbols and creative modalities to tell and elicit stories.
Somerset West
The
first bare line: Writing for Beginners and Continuers R180
Writing is
beginning always beginning (Gertrude Stein)
Sat 21 June
14.00 -17.30
I went my own way/ deciphering that burning fire ...
and wrote my first bare line/ pure foolishness, pure wisdom (Neruda)
In the
workshop as we search for words and images, we seek the fire that Neruda writes of. The condition of
grace from which words rise as flames.
Egoli
17-20 July - a series of workshops and
interactive speaking engagements related to Frankl’s
work and our search for aliveness and meaning.
Contact Coral Wilder coralw@telkomsa.net 011 622-8793
083 450-9148. One of the workshops is:
Finding the Fire: Rekindling our passion for life and work
I know that there is room in me for a second huge and timeless life
(Rilke)
We enter the world of story to recover our creativity, zest,
energy and passion. We search for a myth to sustain and transform us as
we ask, the poet T S Eliot’s question, “Where is the life we have lost in
living?” We consider how attention to life stories and fiction, so rich in
image, symbol and rhythm, can create a more abundant life. The workshop uses
collage work, journaling, visualisation, observation and other modalities to
inspire us.
23-25 July –
Library services East Cape Dept of Education – training teachers so they can in
turn teach the children under their care to writer their stories around
HIV/AIDS
whale
and Into Spring…
Pretoria In the Belly of the
Whale: words, images, stories
and healing
9-10 Aug
I
love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes
it throws in a load of fish. (Bernard Malamud)
This workshop (rich in metaphors) aims
to enrich the personal experience and work of any one involved in the healing
professions. It considers how attention to this mytho-poetic
world creates a more abundant life and opens us to healing.
Workshop run in conjunction with South
African Society of Clinical Hypnosis (SASCH)
(sasch
@ianopperman.com 011
622 1598 086 671 8552)
Ixopo Zen Pen:
Writing and Meditation
15-17 August –at
Buddhist Retreat Centre. brcixopo@futurenet.co.za 039 834 1863
details soon on the site. www.brcixopo.co.za
Two
Sept events at the Wakkerstroom
Country Inn
Want
come to Wakkerstroom over the 26- 28 Sept? (2,8 hrs drive SE ex Egoli)
Why not stay over at the
A Wakkerstroom
Creative Writing Workshop R210
Sat 27 Sept
09.30 – 12.45 (registration 09.15)
The good news? Everybody has a
story to tell and anybody can write. Writing is not a talent. It is a learnt
skill. This workshop gets you started so you can glide across the page.
Connect to your creativity and imagination and be at home with words. The workshop
shows you how to reach your readers.
Beginners are
welcome. Dorian
has shown many people how to find the writer hiding inside them. Come and learn
to ‘dance.’ Bring writing materials.
Wakkerstroom Arabian Nights Evening
Fri 26 and Sat 27 Sept (repeated) 19.00
You
are invited to join us for an evening of fun, laughter and great middle eastern food & wine, with Arabian Nights, Rumi and Nasrudin stories. Listen to tales of love and
intrigue, as you savour traditional delights from the middle
east.
Hogsback East Cape– Writing, Reflecting, Being
Mon 24 – Fri
28 Nov
Join
East Cape poets Cathal Lagan and Brain Walter and
Other
story telling/ writing activities for organisations
Upington and White River co-ordinating a Storywell
team, training caregivers in creative modalities to tell and prompt stories
from children infected/affected by HIV/AIDS and to offer them psycho/social
support. (other Team members: Elma Pollard, Philippa Kabali-Kagwa, Toto Gxabela)
Olso Oct/Nov. Stories and leadership in
Norway Oct/Nov
Mentoring
I continue as
archer on the writing range, suggesting how to bend the bow and which arrow for
which target. Or shooting the arrow then drawing the target round it.
5-
Email Courses
Some folks
respond to structure, assignments and seek writing companions… join writes from
the great anywhere…
Write Write Write: Writers’ Development: Email
Course (WWW)
Good news. Elma is back. Elma Pollard, whose weekly earth column in the Bolander, is getting much acclaim, facilitates this course. There have been requests for follow-up courses
so Elma has created wwwfollow1. Want to craft stories? New
intake every month. Elma combines
life and writing coaching - an enabling process. (starlight@wol.co.za. 084 868 2908) see her new site www.greencoach.co.za courtesy of my son Dominic.
Poetry for Publication (PFP)
Bob and I guide you in writing and selecting your poems for a
solo self publication. Anne-Marie Moore is compiling a collection, Grace note moments Preludes and Poems.
Two Books a coming (repeat info)
The Halo and the Noose,
the Power of story-telling and story listen in Business Life with Graham Williams is at the checking stage. We run
corporate story workshops based on our book. (Look at my site for
details.) The Achilles Heal, The Healing Art
and Craft of Poetry with Bob
Commin will be out mid 2009.
Workshops/Literary Events with other
Folk
Bob Commin (poet, creativity coach, storyteller and pastor) runs poetry
courses/events in the Southern Suburbs (
Come, come
whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper
Lover of leaving, It
doesn't matter (Rumi)
Spirituality Group meets Tues 10 June at 6.30 pm at home of Mandy Young,
Working with the
Artist’s Way Join this creative
project on Tuesday afternoons from 16.00 -18.00 and rediscover and nurture your own
creativity. Fish Hoek
Bob
is also designing a new format for the two email poetry courses that we have
been running Poem Poem Poem (PPP) Making Poetry
and The Poet’s Voice
(PVC) Advanced
Writing Course. From
June 08 he will be taking over these courses.
Writer-sites and News
Samantha Layton-Matthews has sent me Paulo Coelho’s site –www.warriorofthe
light.com. another conversation about writing. Thank
you Sam
Helen Brain, author, has begun writing for a Canadian web-zine (specifically about writing for children) see link at:
http://writingforchildren.suite101.com/
Source new
opportunities every month. Check out
Lee Cahill’s www.sabookworm.com
Thanks you Lee for a site that informs and supports writers. This is writer
good news.
Wordsetc A South African Literary Journal
Loosely based on the idea of The New Yorker, this is a new literary journal to
look out for.
Writers need to read as part of
self-tutorship. I suggest you subscribe to New Contrast (poetry and
prose) – 4 copies per annum for R210. Hugh Hodge, the editor is doing a fine
job for writers. Thank you Hugh. newcontrasted@gmail.com
If you have a
need, an inspiration, let’s create a workshop. Have story wagon, will travel.
Thank you for hoarding from the Spring branches
the desires falling across your bodies like blossoms.
Dorian
PS Thank you to all those who circulate this letter.
Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086 511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com