March 2009 Writing Newsletter

The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living

(T. S. Eliot)

Dear writer

I have just returned from story-telling shops in Limpopo - Polokwane and the Soutpanberg. Interalia, I gave a memorial talk on the influence of the late African humanist and writer, Eskia Mphahlele. I spoke off my growing understanding of our conversation with the ancestors. In Lesheba up in the mountains, we stayed in Venda village accommo reconstructed on a former village site. Ancestors were palpable.

I have also been journaling, writing to my father who died when I was eleven, to an uncle killed in the first world war, to a retarded/advanced half-brother who died more than 30 years ago, to my grandmother who raised fifteen children.

This work lives in writer’s time for we move out of tick-tock time into the great presence that includes what has been and what is to come. We write in ritual time. Eliot’s words inscribed on his memorial in Westminster Abbey, take on fresh nuances. I feel I am in relationship, as in this poem from Drawing Water:

If Ancestors were Apples

when one apple ripens

in the bowl

on the kitchen table,

apple ancestors,

granny, star-king,

ripen in reverse.

they lose their bruising.

reseed their rotten core

from bitter black.

the pink lady

unwrinkles her skin.

they sweeten again

crisp, fiberwhite,

golden delicious,

to juice the Eden tree.

Dorian’s March/Haypril Workshops

If you want any of these workshop in your area speak speak.

To respond to two oft asked questions –  No workshop is ever the same even if the looks as if it is. No one jumps into the same river twice. And for those who feel they might be ‘put on the spot’, I invite people to read their writing only if they wish to. You may share in pairs or work in silence if that is your choice.

Somerset West

Writing your Life Story

Sat 14 March

a U3A (University of the third age) workshop – for U3A members. Elders teaching elders.

Egoli  

The Seven Habits of Highly Happy Writers 

Sun 15 March   2.30 – 6.00     R420

I know that there is room in me for a second huge and timeless life (Rilke)

Explore the meaning that is unique to you, through the art of creative writing. You will be guided in a playful process to ask questions about your aliveness and purpose. Explore your creativity and imagination and find words to tell your story… to infuse that story with meaning and make it more alive.  The workshop also focuses on how to be present in our writing and engage readers and ourselves as part of conversations that opens to mystery.

Bring writing materials, old magazines, glue stick and scissors for collage work.

Venue:           Sybbie Barnett’s home 354 Randjies Estate

Randjies-laagte Rd  Highlands North (near Balfour Park)

NB  talk to me re parking arrangements to avoid congestion.

Egoli

Stories for Corporates and Creative Corporate Communication for Quality Life Company

Mon 16 and Tues 17 March

Stellenbosch

Writing and Reading Conversations: Keeping a Writer’s Journal

March 20 (5-7pm) Note the new date

R65 includes a glass of wine or juice.

Attention closet writers, lovers of words, book clubbers, book lovers.  We meet around the possibilities of journalling to enhance your writing/reading pleasure and enrich your writing / bookclub evenings.

My Bookshop Die Boord  Christine /Mariekie 021-8872997/info@mybookshop.co.za

Southern Suburbs Cape  (Kirstenbosch)

The Great Metaphor Hunt: A Picnic for Therapists and Other Healers  R250

Sun 22 March 10.00 - 14.00         

Raise the stone and you will find me, cleave the wood and  I am there.

(Gospel of St Thomas)

If you go down to the woods today, You’re in for a big surprise

for you’ll uncover metaphors  in every possible guise…

Picnic time for Therapists… Metaphors are everywhere, open to the eyes that seek them. Especially in nature. This hunt  (rich in story, words, images and symbols) aims to enrich the personal and work experience of those involved in the healing professions. It will help you create a more dynamic practice and widen your repertoire of skills. The feasting part of the therapicnic will also be structured around metaphor.

Bring writing materials and a light lunch to share.

Playing with metaphor in the context of a picnic and treasure hunt sounds like an opportunity to become curious again…, to free fall with words  ....to ignite creative participation in our clinical work. (LIzbe Vos)

Venue:           Kirstenbosch  - meet at big trees at the top-end of the amphitheatre

Bookings:       Lizbe Vos  lizvos@telkomsa.net   082 459 9538

Ixopo Natal Midlands Buddhist Retreat Centre

The Halo & the Noose: The Power of Story Telling/Story Listening in Professional/ Personal Life (with Graham Williams)

27-29 March   bookings  brcixopo@futurenet.co.za   039 834 1863

At the heart of this retreat is our belief that once we raise our Story IQ, we begin to hear and tell our work and personal life in a new and vital way. We open up to transformation and new leadership paths. Like the lotus flower, we bloom and seed new beginnings. We reach into what may be murky depths and produce something of infinite beauty and worth. In so doing, prosperity and abundance take on new meanings. The retreat title is taken from Graham and Dorian’s new book.

Haypril on…

Durbanville Cape

Writing Yourself Alive, A Creative Workshop

Sun  5 April   10.00 - 16.00 R390

Like crystals, words can absorb, reflect  and give off light

Writing is about a conversation with yourself and with others. An exchange of energies. It is a skill drawn from attention and openness – an organic process  rather than a talent. In this workshop we explore our innate creativity and imagination and find the words to tell our  stories… to make them more alive. We travel in search of our personal myths - the stories that energise our lives. The workshop also focuses on how to be present in your writing and engage the reader as a creative partner. And source your bliss.

For more info Pauline 0716796957@vodamail.co.za           072 220 6204

Venue:      5 Essenhout Street  Eversdal  near Stellenberg High school.

Windhoek

Journal Workshop

16-20 April

Once more the generous sponsorship of the Carl Schlettwein Foundation in Basel is supporting a journal workshop for staff and students at the Windhoek College of Education.

Calling all Windhoek friends... Petro Kimberg is also organizing a writing workshop which I’ll facilitate while up there in my old home town.

Petro  kimberg@mweb.com.na  264 61 301 767 

Into May… (repeat info in this section)

Hogsback East Cape – Writing, Reflecting, Being

Thurs 7  – Mon 11 May  (Thurs afternoon to Mon  after lunch)

Celebrate the joy of being alive… a five day extravaganza…even stood on Hogsback? Join East Cape poets Cathal Lagan and Brain Walter and West Cape poets Bob Commin and me for this retreat. Visit the eco-shrine, walk the labyrinth, write in the mountains, read at the fireside. Come live the life of a writer.

Western Cape…. …

Movement for Sharing Life Stories in South Africa

16 May  international story telling day. A half day am workshop to strengthen the fabric of South African Society - on the fringe at Franschhoek during the Literary Festival. Put the date in your diary….get the rolling effect going

Kirsten Pearson Symphonia  082 936 1898    021 913 3507 kirsten@symphonia.net

Last year I facilitated the event Symphonia hosted. Carol Scrooby who attended writes:

I ran a workshop with women in Klapmuts - a community market initiative. I used what I learnt … The women opened up to their own stories. We ended with each one making a collage of the story they are creating for the market and their lives. Powerful and healing... I listened to your cd (Tortoise Stories) a couple of times before the day and then on the way there to.  It was like I was chanelling the story tellers of all the ages.

Ongoing activities

Development Work

Last year the Storywell team I co-ordinate completed a UNICEF project training caregives who look after vulnerable children in story telling and listening.

I’m currently writing this up as a resource book (see site for details)

Corporate Work

Story work in organisational development is growing. Stories shape our world of work – leadership, training, mergers, marketing, product development, client services, strategic planning. Stories influence organisations (the larger body) as much as they do individuals (the smaller body). Unconscious stories can sabotage an organisation. Stories made conscious can save it. When employees’ stories are heard and received, they feel valued as an asset and are more present at work. They feel a sense of belonging and begin to use their initiative.

Speaking Engagements

Be still when you have nothing to say but when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot."( D. H. Lawrence)

During 2009 I’m building up this aspect of my work.

Anywhere: Spring Stories at Home

This season I will be a storying for groups of friends…an evening, wine, cheese, breads and tales for the telling. Any rhyme or reason – birthdays, TV fatigue, the art of conversation, sommer. Gather a group for Summer.

Mentoring 

Walk with me in words. Memoirs, mindfulness adventures,  work in the word… genres tumbling out of folk on the one-on-one path. Such a richness of story here.

5-

Email Courses:  Poet’s Voice Course

Some folks respond to structure, assignments… if so, ask and it shall be negotiated. Here is one possibility:

Do you love reading and writing poetry? This one-on-one apprenticeship aims to take you further up the writing mountain and offer you a deeper engagement with your craft. This course is structured in the nature of an ongoing conversation with a few chosen poets, (ancestral or alive) with me and with yourself. I encourage you to keep a poetry journal to record your observations and reflections.

Books

The Halo and the Noose, the Power of story-telling and story listen in Business Life with Graham Williams will be out in March through Pat Grayson of Graysonian Press. Watch this space for launches in Egoli, Durban and Cape Town.   We run corporate story workshops based on our book. (look at my site details.) 

We will be talking at the SAODN (SA Organisation Development Network) on 24 March as a prelude to a May workshop based on the book.

Writer-sites and News (see site news on my web. Erna thank you for new design – I love that tortoise, that turtle) a new web address dorianhaarhoff.com has arrived The longer old one is linked to it.

May ancestors reach over your fingers as you breathe writing life into each other.

Dorian

PS  Thank you to all those who scatter this letter into the breeze.

Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086 511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com and dorianhaarhoff.com
16 Poinsettia Rd, Heldervue Somerset West  7130