WRITING GROUP
The U3A writing group was started by Moira Pedrick in 2008 and initially consisted of only two sitting round her kitchen table. Since that time our numbers have increased to eight. We start the meeting with a reading and discussion of pieces done during the month. These follow a suggested topic and generally do not exceed 1000 words. Actually many are much shorter but occasionally, if someone is really inspired, are much longer. Although prose is favoured, with genres including descriptions, fiction, factual writing, diary entries, we often stray into the realms of poetry.
The second part of the meeting is impromptu writing prompted by a stimulus which could be a word, quotation,
object or picture. We again read these out to the group. Recently we tried writing the same story from
different perspectives. Because it is important to allow everyone to have their work heard, numbers in the
group are limited. Contact: Sylvia Bestwick.
Here is a sample of our writing.
Mono no Aware by Sylvia Bestwick
Just light. The pale sky pink-tinged above the eastern mountains. Air still and breath like smoke. Ground frost sparkles in the lawn and footsteps crunch white grass. Trees are bare; their buds scarcely formed; hedges as yet mere skeletons. All greys and browns except for the emerald spikes of January snowdrops thrusting through the frozen earth and deceptively delicate snowy bells defying the frost.
Then the bare trees become a haze of pinks, yellows and palest green as buds start to swell and leaves break. Not yet the rich greens of summer or the blowsy yellows and crimsons of Autumn spring leaves are purest lime, apricot, fragile pink tempting fate of chilly nights. Daffodil leaves shoot upwards until- if you are lucky-St David's Day is heralded with golden trumpets waving in the sharp March breeze, lining the lanes and verges, clumping round trees and fencing the Welsh cottages.
Delicate windflowers carpet the woods and on the banks pale primroses nestle in leafy rosettes. The bolder reds of tulips and blues of bluebells are still some time off. Dawn is earlier - the half hour frenzy of the dawn chorus at six thirty, then six until the clocks spring forward.
The cherry is in flower - translucent clouds of blossom float on bare branches; Palest of pinks with darkening centres until finally leaves appear as the petals drop. Sad fleeting beauty, heartbreakingly transient. Mono no Aware.
Unexplored Places by Pauline Sinclair Walden
The unexplored places of the mind
Where dragons dance with demons
And sometimes creatures of another kind
Move with stealth amidst their trailing venom,
Lurking just beneath the shell,
Confined to their self-inflicted hell,
Waiting for the carapace to crack,
Scrabbling and screaming through the widening gap,
Intent on wreaking havoc on the unexamined mind-
Indeed a sometime creature of yet another kind.
Please note: Copyright rests with the authors indicated above.