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.

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

"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.

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...

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

The Way We Live

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.

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.

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: