The power of changing ONE word

Tags

change, grenfell fire, news, poem, poetry, truth

Below is a poem I wrote by taking words directly from, and using them in exactly the same order as, an article that appeared online today:

You can read the article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/29/grenfell-survivors-barred-from-council-meeting-about-fire

Here is the poem:

Survivors banned

Amid fears of disruption

In the wake of fire

Avoid a repeat

Councillors joined by invited guests

If any

This meeting will be held in private session

In the light of public safety concerns

Council under intense criticism

Disaster

Residents left to fend for themselves

Protesters stormed Kensington town hall

Anger boiled over

We want justice now

 

But then I wanted to play, explore, see what I could do by changing a single word in each line. This is what I came up with (and yes, I chose to ignore the rule twice):

 

Survivors welcomed

Amid fears of indifference

In the wake of culpability

Avoid a cover up

Councillors joined by invited spokespersons

For the many

This meeting will be held in open session

In the light of public safety breaches

Council accepts intense criticism

Disaster

Residents left to speak for themselves

Pain stormed Kensington town hall

Truth boiled over

We have justice now

 

Perhaps change isn’t so difficult, if we take it one line, one word at a time…

 

Love and blessings all –

 

Harula x

Mirror Mirror – Writers’ Well

Tags

creative writing, creativity, hafiz, poem, poetry, writing, writing prompt, writing workshop

 

 

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow about 5 mins in total) is…Read the following poem by Hafiz. Allow yourself a moment to feel into your own response, and then write whatever comes for about three minutes.

Perfect Equanimity by Hafiz

Look how a mirror
will reflect with perfect equanimity
all actions
before
it.

There is no act in this world
that will ever cause the mirror to look away.

There is no act in this world that will
ever make the mirror
say ‘no.’

The mirror, like perfect love, will just keep giving
of itself to all
before
it.

How did the mirror ever get like that, so polite,
so grand, so compassionate?

It watched God.

Yes, the mirror remembers the Beloved
looking into itself as the Beloved shaped existence’s heart
and the mirror’s
soul.

My eye has the nature of God.

Hafiz looks upon all with perfect equanimity,
as do my words,
dear.

My poems will never tell you no,
because the Mirror is
not like
that,

and if God ever hits you with a don’t –

He has His fingers crossed,

He is just fibbing
for your own
good.

http://www.poetseers.org/the-poetseers/hafiz/hafiz-poems-the-gift/hlove/2-2/index.html

From ‘Love Poems From God’ by Daniel Ladinsky. This is my most treasured book of poems, given to me by a friend for my 30th birthday. This was my three minute response last Friday, but I would no doubt write something quite different if I did the same thing today.

 

So a mirror is like freedom. At once inviting, but also frightening, because with such clear and loving truth, comes responsibility. We ask for truth, celebrate it, but how willing are we, what amount of courage does it take to receive it, see it? And the mirror, like truth, is unmoving. It does not ripple or wave, like a pond or the ocean. It is still, clear, solid in its way, and untouchable, slowing down everything that approaches for to see what is so still, we must be still too.

 

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

War on Walls

Tags

berlin wall, change, compassion, courage, grow, new, poem, poetry, strength, trump, walls

28 years ago

we took down a wall

that had stood for 28 years

and now the world wants

to build more walls

 

but all walls have cracks

inviting prayer notes

laced with tears

where colours grow

for no wall is impenetrable

if you find the weak spot

tiny tender roots can reach

 

28 years ago

we took down a wall

that had stood for 28 years

and now the worst walls are inside

but joy and hope still thrive

despite the hate and scorn poured on

love finds the fault lines and flaunts

the beauty and boldness

that heralds the strength of softness

crumbling rigid stone that refuses

to give and so breaks

 

28 years ago

we took down a wall

that had stood for 28 years

so now we need

a war on walls

to stop them being built

before the next generation

is left fighting

to take them down again

 

On Being Human – Writers’ Well

Tags

creativity, human, mistakes, poem, poetry, robots, TED talks, workshop, writing, writing prompt

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow about 15/20 mins total) is…A Poem ‘On Being Human’

Begin by completing the following half sentence about 10 times, with whatever ideas come into your head; A robot could never…. If you’re doing it in a group, you can pass your list round to the right after each item and add to each others so you get some creative cross pollination of imaginative ideas. Then, turn over your piece of paper and complete the following, again 10 times; I know I’m human because…

Now using the ideas you’ve gathered as inspiration, write a poem entitled ‘On Being Human’. You could also watch this TED talk for some input…

This is what I wrote:

Would I give up being human

to take Trump

out of the White House

and end all the wars?

Would I give up being human

if I could erase

that painful conversation

forever?

Would I rather be programmed

to know my future

and have choices

made for me by code

so they were always ‘right’?

Now I know

why we have free will

because I’d use mine

to keep all my mistakes

and cry anyway

say those words

and learn how to build bridges

that I could cross

to take them back

Because each time life

breaks my heart

I have to mend it

and it becomes bigger

And if I’d known the pain

those choices were going to create

I’d never have made them

but then

I wouldn’t be me

Who would I be

if all I am

was decided by someone

or something else?

Expansion is human

the game of evolution

never knowing what

life holds next

means we risk disasters

but also have access

to the best life

has to offer

even if we don’t

recognise the best

in the moment it arrives

For we’re only human after all

but life still trusts us enough

to create with it

that the result may always be

a surprise

 

 

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

Wednesday Writers’ Well

Tags

blackout poem, compost, creative writing, creativity, fable, first time, found poem, gratitude, hero, heroism, humour, imagination, job, joy, mistakes, nature, poem, poetry, river, soul food, spring, story, TED talks, well, well being, work, writing prompt, writing workshop

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (take about 15 mins in total) begins with completing the following sentence five times – ‘It was the first time…’

Now, for the next ten minutes or so choose one of those sentences, and expand on it… This is what I wrote:

May I introduce…the river Findhorn. I’m heading up to Scotland today – can’t wait!

 

It was the first time she’d spoken to the river. It didn’t feel like anything special. Actually it felt entirely natural, the most natural thing in the world. It didn’t occur to her until later that she may have been seen, overheard.

‘Help me,’ she’d begun. ‘Take this away.’

The immediate wordless response took her breath away. It was gone! She looked all around her. It must be a trick. Who? What? Nothing. But the sadness she’d arrived with really had disappeared. She began to giggle, and it felt like the rapids mimicked her joy as they rushed, white-tipped and wild, towards her. She began to sing, directing her song to the movement of the water, until her new lightness turned into a contented emptiness. She sat on a rock and watched; not anything in particular, just watched.

She began to play ‘what if’. What if I jumped in, where would it take me? What if I knew how to build a shelter and stayed for a night right here on the river bank? What if I could ask this rock to tell me all that it’s seen and heard? What if I were perched on the top of that tree, light as a bird – what would I see? What if being me weren’t so different from anybody else? What if I belonged? Fitted in…

The game stopped. She didn’t fit in, but just maybe that was a good thing. She stood, with new resolve, and bowed to the river. As she turned to walk uphill, back the way she’d come, it didn’t feel like she was climbing, for inside she was already ‘up’, and could see more clearly where she wanted to go.

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers’ Well

Tags

blackout poem, compost, creative writing, creativity, fable, found poem, gratitude, hero, heroism, humour, imagination, job, joy, mistakes, nature, poem, poetry, soul food, spring, story, TED talks, well, well being, work, writing prompt, writing workshop

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow around 15/20 mins total) is in two parts, and is on the topic of – heroes or heroism.

To begin, take no more than 10 minutes to just write whatever comes as you reflect on this topic. You might describe an individual whom you consider to be a hero, or you might explore the qualities or demands or what we term heroism. Just write.

Now, for the next ten minutes or so you’re going to read what you’ve just written and extract, carve out, discover…a blackout poem. This simply means you underline, or circle, or in some other way highlight words (or parts of words) from the text to make a poem. Ideally you won’t change the order or form of the words at all.

This is what I ended up with:

Unsung heroes

meet

daily living

with honest graft, heart

write them

sing them

the world wouldn’t turn

without them

mothers go without

so children thrive

bus driver leaves his seat

to help

never mind the timetable

everywhere heroes

keeping us human

hearts standing strong

hope alight

your stories all around me

make lots

of little differences

 

 

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Love lets go

Tags

dreams, fly, freedom, love, mother, mothers day, poem, poetry, wings

My amazing mother

I’m not a mother, but on a walk the other day I found myself singing about a situation in which I’d recently had to let go of something I loved deeply. That reflection left me with a new level of appreciation and awe for mothers who love and let go, because they want their beloveds to fly, even as they yearn to keep them by their side. The world has grown (we’re all so much more spread out) as much as it has shrunk (but I can chat to Dad in Bali for free, and keep in touch with friends in Australia on FB) and so we’re not always face to face as much as we might wish…

So I wrote this poem about letting go, and it feels right to share it today, in honour of all mothers, and in Gratitude to my own mother, who once called me a bird, and continues to encourage me to spread and use my wings.

A letter I wrote, published in the New Internationalist magazine back in 2003.

 

 

I loved you

so I hated to let you go

but I loved you enough

to want your success

more than temporary grief relief

so I smiled, and blessed, and thanked

you, and found space to cry

in my own time

for longer than expected

truth be told

 

But it passed

and I found new ways

to serve that love

that never went away

but paid attention when asked

to change direction

find new expression

 

So now I whirl thermals

beneath your wings

even when they take you

to places I can’t follow

I swallow the sadness

and wave you off

because if I keep waving

you’ll keep coming back

for another

goodbye –

now fly!

Wednesday Writers’ Well

Tags

compost, creative writing, creativity, fable, gratitude, imagination, job, joy, nature, soul food, spring, story, well, well being, work, writing prompt, writing workshop

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow around 10-15 mins in total) is to write…A modern day fable

 

If you’re in a group, each person should write three job titles, one each on a three small pieces of paper. These then get folded up, and mixed up with everyone else’s, after which each person picks two. If you’re doing this by yourself, maybe write five jobs, each on a separate piece of paper, and then pick two.

 

I picked bank manager and newspaper delivery boy/girl. This is what I wrote:

 

“Morning!”

The boy was just about to put the newspaper through the letter box when Jeremy opened the door. He turned quickly before there was time for to receive a reply to his greeting, jumped on his bike and had disappeared around the corner before Jeremy’s sleepy pre-caffeine brain had even taken in the headlines.

Monday morning and the tie around his neck was both a comfort and a collar – soothingly familiar, but also feeling like it came with an invisible lead that limited his freedom. He pulled up in the car park and walked the short distance up the high street to open up.

He was the first in and disabled the alarm, settling in behind his desk to review his diary for the day. He was meeting a couple who wanted to remortgage their home at 9.30, and there were interviews for the cashier vacancy later. He found himself thinking about the boy (what was his name?) rushing off on his bike with an urgency and aliveness he hadn’t felt in…? Well, not for a while at any rate.

“Good morning Mr Blanford,” his head cashier greeted him. “Coffee?”

“Thank you Kate,” he replied, taking the relaxed smile off his face and replacing it automatically with something appropriately professional, polite.

The next Monday, Jeremy was waiting for him.

“Morning,” the boy said, turning to rush off again.

“Good morning Tom, and thank you.”

Tom stood, smiling a little uncomfortably at the unexpected exchange. “It’s cool,” he said with a shrug, hopped on his bike, and was off.

Jeremy put his new navy anorak on over the neatly pressed suit he wore, and climbed onto his new bike. As he cycled in to work he found himself waving at people he knew as he passed. Locking his bike to a sturdy railing he checked his watch and jogged with urgency the short distance to the bank.

“Morning Mr Blanford.” Kate was already there, waiting by the still locked door.

“Jeremy please, Jeremy. Am I late?”

“Not at all sir. I mean…”

“Jeremy!”

“Jeremy,” she echoed with a smile.

“Well,” he said, holding the door open, “after you.”

 

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers’ Well

Tags

creative writing, creativity, fear, future, gratitude, hope, imagination, joy, nature, soul food, well, well being, writing prompt, writing workshop

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well, coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome to this special edition of a regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because; it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of my own written response. However, today I have the great pleasure and privilege of sharing writing from some of the participants! Today’s prompt (allow around 15/20 mins in total) is called…Reflections on the Future

Begin by writing five sentences, each beginning, I fear for the future because…(complete with you own ideas). If you’re doing it in a group, you can pass your paper/notebook round to the right after each sentence and let the next person add another, so that you get some creative cross pollination of ideas. Now, take a deep breath, and write five NEW sentences, each beginning with, I’m excited about the future because… Once again, if you are writing in a group, you can pass your paper/notebook round.

We wrote with such spontaneous speed and passion that it was hard to read even our own writing at times, let alone each others!

Using your sentences for inspiration, though you do not you have to use all the ideas collected, nor are you limited to those already written, write a poem.

As examples, it gives me great joy to share, with their permission, poems written by some of my fellow writers who participated last week, in the order that they were emailed to me. Thank you all. It’s an honour to have your work here on my blog:-)

 

Reflections on the Future

by Carole Ellis

We have the capacity to love and to destroy.
While some of us build, others will tear down.
Yet the desire to build remains strong.

And the world is grateful for our efforts.
For every block of concrete poured, the daises keep on blooming.
For every ready meal consumed, a farmer somewhere produces food to get the taste buds dancing.
For every child who cannot read, someone is still prepared to teach.

The world will find its balance
And we must find ours too.
It doesn’t come from mindless grind
But from the peace of gentle hope and that capacity for love.

Reflections on the future

by Emma Jones

The future
You must travel there.

With whatever I can arm you with
To slay what dragons may cross your path,
To discover new lands,
To love people as yet unimaginable.

All I can give you is a past
To keep you warm should it be cold
To light your way should it be dark.

The future
You must travel there.

Pack only what you need
Pack an open mind and a big heart
Pack you smile, it’ll serve you well.

The future
You must travel there.

 

Reflections for the Future

by Jenny Heaton

 

The future is unknown
It lies ahead of us, yet to come into being.
I fear for the earth. Yet she is powerful –
Rivers, oceans, rainstorms,
Wind, hurricanes, fire
Remind us
We are part of something greater than ourselves.
The earth is alive, and so are we
The life-force that moves through us
Moves also in the bee, the flower, the leopard.

We need to see the beauty of life all around us
in our rich, diverse, abundant world.
And we need to value it, look after it, and give back to it
with the fierceness of a lion protecting her cubs
and the gentleness of a ladybird landing on a cornflower.

As the stream that starts small on moor and mountain
grows and builds as it flows to the sea
So the seeds of longing can grow into something strong
and powerful, and fierce and loving.

 
Reflections on the Future

Is it the blackest night of humanity?
Have we wounded our Mother beyond healing?
Have we sought dominance through ignorance
until the black oil of profit and disrespect
contaminates our hearts, our consciousness and our children?

And yet, the darkness is a velvet thing,
a womb, a winter, a time to weep.
What child, what spring emerges after grief?
What happens when I listen, we listen
and hear our Mother singing daffodils into yellow?
When fathers love and children grow
and communities care from here to Timbuktu?
What happens when arrogance and difference crumble
and we see our brother in a foreign face?
When we say “No!” with fierce and tender love,
“Enough is enough; there is no them

just us.”

 

This poem was created with added colour, so I’ve shared it as an image rather than text:

I feel newly emboldened and hopeful having been so beautifully and powerfully reminded that I do not travel into that future alone, but rather with many courageous, compassionate, creative souls who share a similar vision of the world we want to see…and the one we must therefore, together, create 🙂

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers’ Well

Tags

creative writing, creativity, gratitude, imagination, international womens day, joy, miracles, nature, rwanda, soul food, well, well being, writing prompt, writing workshop

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

This is my friend Beatha Munganyinka, with her three boys.

You can find out more about Beatha by following the link below

https://beathaandherboys.wordpress.com/

Before I dive in to the regular Wednesday post, I’d like to (re)share a poem I wrote a while back, in recognition of the fact that today is International Women’s Day. For inspiration I turned my thoughts to my heroines…the mothers of Africa, or more specifically, the women in Rwanda who have been such friends and sources of inspiration to me. For more about International Women’s Day, follow this link:

https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Theme

She bears a year old child upon her back

Her body oozing sweat in vicious heat

A child beside with nothing on her feet

Walks in silence down the dusty track

No waste of precious words to voice her lack

The woman’s rod straight back shows no defeat

Her head held high she stops to meet and greet

For all are friends who walk this dusty track

A car pulls up to offer them a lift

She feels the soothing air conditioning

Her daughter waits to see what she will do

The man inside is offering a gift

He’s smiling now and beckoning them in

They walk on by, thank God her mother knew

 

And now, a belated welcome to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow around 15 mins in total) is called…Mundane Miracles

Begin by making a list, speedily and spontaneously, of about 10 things/experiences, you consider to be little everyday ‘miracles’. If you’re doing it in a group, you can pass your list round to the right after each item and add to each others so you get some creative cross pollination of imaginative ideas.

Now, with your list for inspiration, though you do not you have to use everything on it, nor are you limited to the things on your list(s), write a poem. Here is what I wrote:

 

I believe in miracles

the daily, mundane kind

no need to wake from death

or fly with pigs

just smile

smile with heart and soul on show

and you catch me in that glow

and I feel that joy and lightness

grow in me too

watch that wild thing following freely

with nothing to gain

but a moment of connection

unspoken friendship that neither asks

nor wants but flies away

as lightly and spontaneously as it came

colour, that child of light

ever changing as the day births,

grows and dies

spilling a vast palette

from an ever changing sky

onto a receptive world below

that forgets blue is so much more

that a single four letter word

nothing need change

for life to become

a series of mini miracles

it’s all already there

just waiting to be noticed

 

 

May your day be Miraculous 🙂

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/