Wednesday 29 April 2020

A journey, an old friend and silence

This untitled piece is by Peter Gallagher
With both arms open wide to the enveloping sense of space, I launch into a journey within my mind to a place beyond the familiar.
The certain knowledge of the past erased and the drawers, full of once useful and long forgotten  keepsakes, pulled open and tipped purposefully upside down on the floor of my ivory tower.
The whiteness of the blank paper is blinding . The potential for rebirth is there in front of me , to be grasped and held preciously in both hands . The future is uncertain but the path of the journey is clear

Early days of Water Story with our dear departed boat woman Morag Anderson



Thoughts on Silence
by Pat Sutherland

Silence
happens rarely
a singular gift
when traffic ceases
or the sky opens
at the end of a peewit’s cry
amplifies itself
when water laps on stones
and leaves rustle
On a shedding tree.

Silence 
spirit-calming 
sound of creation
split by our first cry
in a clamorous world

unwelcome only 
after angry words

Monday 27 April 2020

Live Session 27th April ~ Dark Hearts and Wild Geese with Mary Oliver

On the wings and among  the starlit, bulging haunches of  Mary Oliver's poems we enjoyed another rich session. Today, for the first time, Tara took us on a short mindfulness meditation between prompts; extraordinary how quickly we all relaxed into that, thank you Tara! Hats off to Sheila, battling with Covid among all her other afflictions; she is soldiering on, recovering slowly, writing plenty and writing powerfully (see below). I can only imagine the chicks starting to hatch on the canal... here are some photos from the past.

Our first prompt today comes from Mary Oliver's well known poem Wild Geese:

wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again

We managed a second prompt from her poem "The Chance to Love Everything"
These last few lines echo the atmosphere of Water Story... writers were invited to use any or all of these lines (or indeed, as ever, anything else that comes to mind) as a writing prompt.


"...
Did I actually reach out my arms
toward it, toward paradise falling, like
the fading of the dearest, wildest hope - 
the dark heart of the story that is all
the reason for its telling?"

Watch this space for more writing coming in. 


Grounded
Sheila Buchanan

My first day out after 5 weeks alone
Roads deserted with runners not cars
Shops boarded up no sound of their tills
No cuckoos around to fly over their nest
Where am I in this world of ours?

It’s the day after my terrible news
My pen is speeding down the page as I relive my terrible dream
I want to scream and break the silence
I am now one of the diagnosed
My mind is racing my heartbeat up
I’m breathing so fast to grab oxygen.

My scan is over I breathe a sigh
I’m told by a doctor wearing a mask
There are changes in my lungs
My mind exploded I cannot hear a thing
Not me, not now. it cannot be real
I head outside with my mask in place
I cannot believe what is happening to me
Tears run down
My throat closes up; feels like a rasp

Now it’s another day all alone with my thoughts
My scribbles overrun the page
My body is sore and very fatigued
It’s the pandemonium of this pandemic as virus crowds my heart and mind.

Thursday 23 April 2020

Should I - Shouldn’t I?

Meeting online means we have May joining us regularly from Inverness. Here is an sunset from there and a poem from May.




Should I - shouldn’t I?
by May McIntyre

It twirls and turns as it glides past my window like a ballet dancer experimenting with new moves.
It’s gone out of my view but still exists.
I know because it exists in my world.- our world- everybody’s world.
Exists in this surreal world we are all living in right now - yes right now- right this minute.

Should I or shouldn’t I?
That’s the question on my lips that has arrived there from my brain which seems to be on lockdown too.
It’s on more than lockdown though - shutdown would be a more accurate description.
Why has it shutdown?
To block out all the sadness that surrounds it?
To try to find happiness again?
Or to just let me be at peace during these turbulent times?

Should I - Shouldn’t I
Go and investigate to see where it has gone on it’s journey on this windy day.
Today I do not know the answer to that question.
Months ago it would not have been a question at all.
How our world has changed when I am in doubt whether I should pick up that piece of rubbish or not!

Wednesday 22 April 2020

First Wave

Wonderful to have work rolling in, at this rate I will be able to add new posts every day... keep 'em coming! Today we have our first submission from Louise Terry on the Isle of Cumbrae; she has been joining Water Story via email. And then Helen takes us roaming... in her own inimitable way.


I heard the first wave of the rising tide 
The first death on the island ...

by Louise Terry



Roaming
by Helen Elsley

We have always taken trains.
when our city came too close about us, packed
the car, with boots tumbled in the footwells,
hailed the Skyeways bus from the end of our road
to the Uig ferry, started adventures with
the safety announcements in English and Gaelic.
We took off, treading the bog-myrtle into sharpness,
or placing our feet,
to keep from crushing Grass of Parnassus,
in its gentle wind tilt on Faraid Head.
We swam in gasp-cold sea
and soft lochans that made our Scottish skin
look browned, and our steps sink
in warm peat silt.

Now we walk the hospital grounds
and look out to the Kilpatrick hills
larger than life, on the city edge
where the skylarks will soon circle up,
above our absent, upturned heads.





Tuesday 21 April 2020

To Touch or not to Touch

by Sheila Buchanan.... with apologies To Shakespeare (no apologies allowed Sheila!)

To Touch or not to touch
That is the question
Whether it is more dangerous now
To suffer this life or death
The ups and downs of this outrageous fortune
Or to stay indoors and speak to no one
To listen to news and panic
The heartache of these terrible times
A thousand deadly deaths a day
That flesh becomes: ‘tis a cremation
To die to sleep perchance to dream
For in that sleep
What dreams may come of a future soon
When we move beyond this global strife
We will meet again the Queen says.



The original version from Hamlet:

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

Hamlet W Shakespeare




Monday 20 April 2020

"Street Party" ~ Live Session 20/04/20

What a rich session we had today, seeking out a more positive frame of mind by conjuring up the street party at the end of the corona mess. Look at this miraculous writing:




But the real gift today was the sharing of our respective states of mind in these unreal times: the loss of appetite for news, drama, social media and other entertainments. Invaluable insight  came from different group members on mental health compromises (both now and once this is all over) that arise from the current "hyper-vigilance", even though much of it is sub-conscious or even dissociated (Peter had some information on the machinations of the hippocampus in this regard... fascinating, but don't ask me to relay it. Peter?). 

Tara had some mineral recommendations: as much vitamin D as you can, as well as zinc and vit c apparently helps battle any such viruses. She will be sharing a short mindfulness session with us next Monday as part of the session - yay! 

Both Sheila and Pat encouraged us all to be gentle with ourselves given the current shortage of brain space, and May's piece of writing has triggered an idea to design a flag to be waving when we finally have the street party.

Thanks for a quick submission Sandra... come on the rest of you!

Speak>Easy>Street>Party.
by Sandra Walls

Now were out from shielding
Our brains are still in shock
Let’s focus on the future
Don’t get stuck under lock
Let’s put our heads together
And party away in awe
A great big get together
The biggest since the war
Capt. Tom, Moore - millions raised
And medals on lapel proudly displayed
In his hero’s war suit he is dressed

For that street party will be the best.


Our second prompt (that everyone took home because the session came to an end) was

what do I know

This is intended as an antidote to all the fuzzy reporting and unpredictability. In the spirit of Water Story we bring our attention back to our here and now, our own individual and mindful realities and write about one thing that you do know for absolute certain.

Friday 17 April 2020

Oor Angie...

Just to keep you all entertained during Quarantino... here's our inimitable Angie Strachan... click through to see her performances. Here's her Stanza page...




Monday 13 April 2020

Live Session 13th April ~ Easter with Kathleen Jamie

Another rich Water Story zoom session this morning but it was cut short in the middle of our farewells... next monday I will use the Lapidus subscription so that we can keep the meeting going uninterrupted from 1030 to 1200 (I will send an invitation in advance and set the meeting to start at 1020). Mary, sorry we lost you!

Our writing prompt

roaming on Rannoch Moor 

came from Kathleen Jamie's poem

Could I also recommend this link of Kathleen Jamie reading her own poems
What a writer! And she's ours! (Scotland's)

Now to brighten your day here is an Aileen picture... with some writing showing through. And below, thanks to Sheila, for an extraordinary poem written by Kathleen O'Mara during the 1869 cholera epidemic... reprinted during the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic... it could have been written today!

Written by Kathleen O’Mara:

And people stayed at home
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.

Monday 6 April 2020

Live Session 6th April ~ Billy Collins

Oh I do love seeing you all!

Another great session, some on zoom and others on email.

Our first writing prompt today was

press your ear to the hive

from Introduction to Poetry by from Billy Collins

(click on that link and treat yourself to a read of that - perfect for anyone who finds poetry intimidating!

We managed a second very swift writing session with the  prompt this time coming from
Michael Blackburns' poem called Before That.
I'm afraid I can't find it online and copyright precludes my publishing it here but it's in the
Being Alive anthology (p253) if you have it. The prompt that we used was:

in a pub back home

We did a swift one minute on this one and a quick share - but rich as ever it was.

We have some bits and pieces promised for the Quarantino Diary so please do pop back here to keep an eye on the blog; and we will zoom again on Monday 13th April.



Wednesday 1 April 2020

Sharing some ....

Ahoy Water Story Writers

This post is to share a couple of creations and a link from Giovanna. Our "mass observation", the writing we are doing as part of our Quarantino Diaries (final format is still being finalised) might result in pieces of writing that you could submit to the Museum of Ordinary People. Click the link here to check it out: 

https://www.museumofordinarypeople.com/ 



I am Stuck
Peter Gallagher

I am stuck.
Stuck to know what to tell you.
It has overwhelmed me.
I put on a brave face but I am alarmed.
Everything is the same but different.
The world has been jolted off its axis.
We crave certainty and order but no one has an answer.
There is only confusion and at the same time that we need to feel the comfort of a loving embrace we are forced to keep our distance and cope alone.

March 2020

... and of course here is a beach painting from Aileen just to cheeer us up: