Sunday Night

Our theme for Friday 23/8 Water Story was
"Sunday Night: an  exploration of what we might lose while grieving for something we still actually have"

and some quite extraordinary life contemplation came out of it. There was a distinct move towards mindfulness via a contemplation of the rhythm of life. It's interesting that a shared article  from the Irish Independent recommends mindfulness as an antidote to the "Sunday Scaries".


Here's what Cap'n Bev found among the musings:

Between

What is the heartbeat without the silence
between the thudding pump of our life organ?
What is day if there is no night into which it can dawn?
What is spring if there be no winter out of which to bud,
and what is winter’s respite without summer’s
punishing expectation of achievement?


Rest now, in the place that you thought was dark;
in the silence where you feared the heart
would never beat again. Heal
in the spaces between your breaths.
Embrace the exquisite stillness of that quiet
till you care no more what’s to be done with the breath to come
nor what was said by the breath before.

BS Aug19

Anthology Launched

What a finish!

Well 29/3 was a flourish of a finish to the current sessions thanks to Skye Loneragan who drew us so far into her dramatic facilitation that we were gargling salt - fantastic.

The good news is that funding for another two years of Water Story has been secured thanks to the  Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund.

Next session starts on 3rd May 2019, but till then, keep the writing coming in as Angie has with these two pieces (we look forward to seeing her perform live on 13th April).

Meanwhile we await the launch of our

Words Work Well for All Anthology
10th April 2019

Angie's poems below arose from "a rather alternative warm up writing exercise" that she has developed... hmmmm gonnee share it Angie? ; )


Love Lotion

Love, was a lotion I learned how to make myself
in my dreams you were mine
but I didn’t always like butterflies
you spent years running away
from my fingerprints
advancing from one country to the next
finding your passions, you’d say the right things
I was your world
but feelings change
now every single time you come home
I struggle, to know where we are

Angie Strachan
©


Food for Thought

I denied it, of course
asked few questions
made excuses
on a bad day
you were my, waste of time
decided to reside
in my intestines
connecting my gut
to brain cells and neurons
you took care
of my need
a release from anxiety
a coping strategy
and I’m sure …
over the long term
guilt will become
an uncomfortable emotion

by Angie Strachan
©

The Write Way to the Wild Woman with Lesley O'Brien

What a witchy sesson we had with Lesley... 
Baba Yaga looking over our shoulders; such stories... Helen wrote the pieces below, Aileen made cakes and John actually poured coffee! 

Laloba

Lupine
Allegory
Lights up
Our
Barge-blessed
Afternoon

Cabin

As the bright plunger goes down
and the coffee is poured,
white steam clouds
are shafted by the sun’s spotlight
in the dark cabin.
Voices billow cheerfully
around the cake table.
Momentarily I know I am rich.

What a start!

Captain's view from the stern

We had a full boat for the start of Water Story 2019, and a sunny day to sail the canal though we did plough into some ice at Maryhill; surprisingly thick! At one point I cut the revs and looked down into the boat and found the gathered crew scribbling away diligently - enough to make this captain's heart sing.

Sunlight and reflection - perfect backdrop to our day talking of memory

Our theme "Albums" led us through an exploration of how we remember, and what an extraordinary collection of writing came out of the day. Even more exciting was the catch up on our writers' recent successes: Angie got second place in the Scottish Poetry Slam finals this month; Peter's docudrama (Brexit: the uncivil war - with Cumberbatch) has proved a powerful talking point; Aileen, Pat and Helen have all had pieces published this year and Sandra is discovering her devastating prowess as a standup/speaker - roll on Burns night! 

Grey Heron looking for fish in our wake

There was a hearty embrace of Gore Vidal's quote "Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little." and I confess that the facilitation of this group becomes ever more a marvel than a job to do. Thank goodness I have a boat to skipper, a valid contribution, and an opportunity to shake my head into a cool Glasgow sky as it swims with gratitude for the sharing and the power of these words.

Come on gang, submissions for the blog please! This was my piece to start us off:

Four-cornered

Sometimes to honour our youthful spirit we ease that old album from the shelf and smile softly back at our innovative young selves, taking on the world as no one had before. We politely turn the four-cornered pages of four-cornered album full of four-cornered  photographs. Part way through we lovingly close it, thinking how well we know these pictures and how impossible it is for them to describe the roundness of our days, the full spinning sphere that our life has been.

Our lives whisk by in a pictorial wind of events and faces, anniversaries and achievements, emotions and pets. We gather loved ones and vocations like armfuls of fruit till we stagger out of our prime, then, one by one, put them down… some gently, some less so. Occasionally the fruits of our labour might pick us up, carry us along, but gradually we all calm down and take a gentle stroll towards a setting sun, no longer compelled to paint a picture, tell it, or capture it for future memory. Here it is, now, its light dimming in our seeing eyes, its warmth receding on our smiling cheeks, our gentle anticipation of quiet night.

Bev Schofield Jan19

Wakey wakey! 2019!

Highland Cinema ~ March 2017 post

by Sheila Buchanan

As the blog lengthens some of these gems are consigned to "Older posts"; I'm going to start cycling the content back to the beginning for another read. The pieces are well worth it - like this transportive account of cinema experience of old by Sheila...

Back in the day Glasgow was known as cinema city and indeed cinema going was a mass phenomenon.  By 1939 there were 114 cinemas in the city.  The Enchineer being the font of all knowledge and experience remembered that within a mile of where he stayed there were at least 10 cinemas.  He corroborated the tale that you took jam jars to the ticket booth and in exchange got entrance to a world apart and the silver screen.  His father would give him 2 shillings and that was enough to get him and his sister a bag of sweets and entrance to the cinema with still enough left over to buy his siblings back home a share of  penny caramels which would be divided up so no one missed out.

Listening to the Enchineer’s stories led me  to think about some rare archive footage of the Highlands and Islands Mobile cinema I had seen recently.  The footage which had only recently been catalogued showed the cinema van which would do its rounds to all the rural villages and islands.  The size of the community was no barrier to a visit.  The whole village would go out and walk in their “good clothes” to the local hall enfamille. Young and old and older were there washed and dressed and ready for their evening. The footage shows the farmer often finishing his work in the field with the ancient agricultural machinery which required vast amounts of manual work unlie the sophisticated machinery of today.  He would then join the family and villagers at the hall to see the latest offering at the “cinema”

The man in the van would arrive early at the venue and carry in all the crates of films in their large tin cans and the hefty large projector.  He rarely had a helper so he was

The man wi’ the van

Bringing in the tin can

The power to run the projector was often taken from a link up to the alternator and battery of the van.  To get the height required to show the films the projector height was fashioned from a number of boxes arranged with the wooden step ladder on top.  This makeshift edifice would have the projector sitting on the wooden platform of the step ladder and be of sufficient height to show the film on a wall or screen so that all could view.

The size of the communites varied from 100 in Kilchrenan to the mighty tally of 300 or more in the bigger villages.  The program consisted of small shorts, kids programs and the main feature.  Sometimes the older children would be allowed to see the main film which was a treat for them.  The adults would get wooden gym benches to sit on and the children the floor.  On Skye there was a bus that collected the audience to take them to Portree to the bigger cinema.  As there were no pubs in the rural areas it was a wheeze to get the bus to Portree where there were pubs and so the bus back was rowdy and fun…..memories made no mention of the film.  It was also a match making dating agency.

Film makers of all shades made films.  They would capture life with no CGI effects available to them but these will last longer in the archive memories and provide deep insight and vision for ourselves getting a glimpse into the past and celluloid tales.

I myself experienced this mobile cinema in Arran in the late 50’s in Brodick community hall.  The hall would be filled with folding chairs that appeared to feel soft at the start but ended up being fidgety and hard but this still did not spoil the excitement. I saw King Kong which was an early film version compared with the recent release and had none of the sophisticated effects of today but was none the less full of terror and suspense despite the crackly effects.  I can still remember the sounds of the film reel flapping as it came to the end of the first reel and needing changed to allow the film to continue.  The lights would come on and an enforced interval would take place while the next reel was fitted.  The sounds of the running machine and the light casting a beam of dancing dust particles in the darkness are strong memories for the senses.  There was no separate projection room then.

The images of these times have filtered into my brain and cast interest and inspired my own memories.  We live in an era of rapid change so rapid that we do not notice the changes.  It is a privilege to be allowed to look back at these films which have now been digitised and preserved for us.  For further enlightened reflection of these times there is open access to the National library of Scotland which has opened a brand new venue in the Kelvin hall. It has a vast and catalogued collection of images which are freely available to anyone to view in comfortable and stimulating surroundings….

Further resources about the cinemas in Glasgow can be found at

http://urbanglasgow.co.uk/archive/o_t__t_4455__start_100__index.html

This shows  pictures of where the cinemas were. You will be surprised at the size of the cinema buildings and reflect on what is there now.  As an example a cinema which existed close to my current home is now a car park and an Aldi store.!!