Creative
Workshops 2006 Octember Writing Newsletter
…the living power and prime agent of all human
perception, ... a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation
in the infinite I AM
(Coleridge on the Primary Imagination)
Dear writer
The Person from Porlock
Perhaps you know the story around
Coleridge’s writing of Kubla Khan?
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
The poet woke from an opium induced sleep
with the lines vivid his in his head. As the muse was dictating , a knock on
the door brought “a person from Porlock.” His interruption about a business
matter lasted more than an hour. When Coleridge returned to the page, the
vision had fled “like the images on the surface of a steam in which is cast a
stone.”
The person from Porlock has become a
metaphor for whatever disrupts our creativity. In a Science Fiction story
(Raymond Jones) when aliens spot signs of human creativity, they dispatch the
man from Porlock to subvert it. In Dick
Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (Douglas Adams) a lover of the poem,
returns to 1797 to stand guard at Coleridge’s door. When no visitor arrives, he
thinks somebody may have slipped past so he knocks on the door to check.
Ironically he becomes the person from Porlock.
The poet, Stevie Smith, wrote "Thoughts about the Person from
Porlock." She argues that Coleridge’s
person from Porlock was a timely excuse as the poet was stuck.
I am hungry to be
interrupted
Forever
and ever amen
O Person
from Porlock come quickly
And bring
my thoughts to an end.
So whether you are distracted or seek
distraction, I encourage you to trust your imagination (a sacred word for
Coleridge) and engage with words. Again and again. This is our liveliness.
On Love x 4
This
month my heartner, Elma, lost a dear friend. I wrote this meditation of CS Lewis The
Four Loves? (It’s raw, in process and will perhaps need further re-working.
Here’s your chance to mentor the mentor. Suggestions are welcome.)
Four Loves
“to
love is to be vulnerable” (C S Lewis)
as
you grieve a dead friend,
I
dream you see visions -
mosaics
in the heavens,
created
in coloured stone.
I
am led back to Lewis
and The Four Loves.
when
you were one, in the year
his
wife of brief love died,
he
to die soon, mid sixties -
the
age of your friend’s passing -
he
sang of these Greek words -
shades
to the power of four.
storge -
companionship,
family
and chance encounters.
philia
- friends chosen
for
road walking .
eros -
being in loveness,
seeking
the beloved.
agape –
one Corinthians thirteen,
the
galaxy of God’s charity.
while
the first three reeds grow
on
human banks, the fourth
binds
all in one sheaf.
elevates,
infuses them,
blossoming,
reaching up
ever
into the heavens.
in
your nature love
constellates
in agape.
on
the lips of
in
the star speech of the gods
spoken
on nights black as coffee brew,
you
are such a Greek-rich tongue.
Corporate/ Organisational Work
Expanding the life of the one who goes to
work, expands the work.
In Nov. on I’ll be offering two corporate
workshops at The Learning Centre in Tokai,
The Halo and the Noose: the Power of Story-listening
and Story-telling in Business Life (with Graham Williams) - 8 Nov
Words at Work, a writing workshop to enrich corporate work
- 7 Nov.
In late Oct. it seems Elma and I will be
involved with UNICEF teaching writing to rural children in the
I’m also facilitating writing skills for 50
rural KZN teachers who in turn teach their learners to write their stories
around HIV/AIDS. (An ELITS - Education, Library Information Technical Services
– initiative.) I co-edited I got the Message, HIV and AIDS life stories,
fiction and poems from KwaZulu-Natal Schools, Volume 1, MIET, Durban,
2005. This is for Volume 2.
Quality Life are offering a conference in Sea Point,
Business
Unusual: Making Business a Force for Positive Social Change
“Wear dark suits and whisper radical
thoughts” Charles Handy
There's a new generation of business leaders who are using their
acumen to create a better society and not just a healthier bottom
line. Often activists rather than just idealists, they are the
principled pragmatists who know that organisations need to move from a
fear-based system to a more humanitarian whole systems perspective in order to
thrive.
I have a story slot on the afternoon of the
19th. Contact dunne@qualitylife.co.za
We’re midway through the second WWW
course. The writers are bringing aliveness to their texts. Begum
Khan, a current course member, writes:
...you spoke of first creating the person
who writes the poems… how differently I make sense of this now, after both
these assignments. What both of you are busy doing is helping us find
ourselves, helping us piece together ourselves as if we are standing outside
peeping in. We see so much more, see what normally just flashes by and
slips down the sink of our lives.
We’re taking bookings for the next WWW(Feb-
May 07.) Elma works with me on this. (Elma’s email starlight@wol.co.za. 021 853 6159) She
mentors our Afrikaans clients and some of the English ones too. She also offers
life coaching.
Mentoring
I’m grateful for all the current mentoring conversations
(one-on-one apprenticeships) as we walk the way of words together. …and a new book, Sue Gow’s poetry A Shake of Light, is out... hurray… 686
6727
Workshops
…and so to the Octember (remember Dr
Seuss?) and on workshops.
The Bigger You: Writing, Longing and Belonging R340
and there comes the knowing that in me there is space
for a second, large and timeless life (Rilke)
When we write, we move into a space where
we discover our ‘larger’ self. Other possibilities open to us. We live more
abundantly. This workshop explores how we can bring our creativity and
imagination to our writing and so engage our potential. The workshop also
explores how writing can open to a life-long love affair with ourselves.
Somerset West
The Bigger You: Writing, Longing and Belonging R340
Sun 22 Oct 09.30 –
16.00
See text under
4
Egoli
The Bigger You: Writing, Longing and Belonging R390
Sun 5 Nov
09.30 – 16.00
See text under
Karin has offered us a gentle Yoga class 08.30 – 09.15 for those who
wish to arrive early.
The Helderberg Writing Escape
14-19 November (featured
in South Africa Writing Vol 2 April
06)
Time to firm up booking for the Helderberg
School of Writing Escape. Johanna Castro, an international freelance journalist, who coaches in the genres of
magazine and travel writing will be working alongside me. An extravaganza - our first 5 day joint
venture. We’ll be writing and mentoring at a wine
farm and in the Helderberg Nature Reserve. The escape will offer five days of
exploration and discovery.
Other
Workshoppers
Bob
Commin (poet, writer, storyteller, pastor…..)
021 447 9550
082 2025303
bcommin@netactive.co.za
The
Healing Art of Writing (R250. Deposit R100)
Sat 21
Oct
for those who:
think about writing and never do it… need
to deal with events of the past…
have lived through a trauma and would like to write about it … have heard that
writing can heal you… want to learn about the great magic of writing … who
would like to meet and learn from others about writing
we share our wisdom and writing (if we
wish) with each other
*be inspired in your creativity* shed
some old skins
Soup lunch provided
Poetry
Writing Day 2 (R250. Deposit R100)
Sat 4
Nov 9.30 – 4.00 pm
…and I went on my way
deciphering that burning fire
and I wrote the first bare line
(Pablo Neruda)
For those who love poetry for those who write or would like to write.
You will be introduced to some wonderful poetry we will explore methods of
writing. We share our wisdom and writing (if we wish) with each other. We
explore rhythm in poem. We have space to walk and reflect….no pressure on
people to produce writing
Soup and bread lunch provided. We will sit
around a cosy fire.
Writing Opportunities
Why not submit articles and stories to www.WhySpirit.com
? Mandy Swinburne at the zany Aladdin’s cave, Bikini Beach Books in Gordon’s
Bay has asked me to bring her site to you. Email yellow@whyspirit.com.
At the moment this is about conversation, expansiveness, and publicity rather
than payment.
Tredicis
in the
A reminder about Tredicis (Italian
for
May you hold off the person from Porlock and unlock
caverns measureless.
Dorian
PS Thank you to all those who circulate this letter. Please let me know if you don’t
want to receive it. (I still receive ‘unsubscribe’ from people not on my
sending list)
Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 852 7587 / 082 873 6802
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com
Marais Street