Following our end of summer meeting on 31st August three of us, Margaret, Douglas and John were able to attend for a quickly arranged couple of hours on Wednesday 21st September.
Douglas is only in Spain for a shorter period than planned, but brought with him five poems that covered topics from his observations, three on political matters and a fifth one entitled 'Not So Glorious' relating to an ongoing pursuit of John's in highlighting the true cost of the driven grouse shooting industry. This one will appear on John's blog.
Douglas's opening one, 'The Falsehood', opens with 'The world is better when we have a drink,/imbibing as we go from place to place'... We echoed his sentiments and even more so as we delved into the profound. In this political world he observed that 'The world so long ago lost Corbyn's goal' in one poem called 'Political Reality 2016' and then there was 'Training' and you can guess what this line refers to when he says 'Until I wound up crumpled on the floor.' Corbyn, of course, and he finishes with the line 'Whose lies come back to haunt him evermore.' In commiseration we know that it is a tough life when the media think that there is a 'good' story to be had. He also savaged the Tories and more of that next week.
There will be more from him and he has given us a quick introduction to more of his work with the *line 'Thatcher's back. Theresa is her shade'. Is this a doppelgänger? Oh dear, politics again, and that is the challenge for all of us. To write what is topical, what is important and the right that we have to write, to say and to protest always will be important. He is also paying attention to mis-pronounced words. I love artitecture, don't you? And skellington too. What a wonderful language we have and how to inadvertently change it.
Margaret had emailed us with a new piece of work inspired by a cemetery that she can see from her window in England and so we did have pre-read beforehand. She describes it as 'the park of the dead' and goes on to say 'There is no sadness, only grief and loss/when visited by love'. I do know what she means. She has been busy and we shall see more from her next week. Having had some spells in England she will bring with her next time some writings to be considered from a workshop with Ann Sansom.
John, likewise, had only found enough time to write one new one. He always finds that the end of summer is a 'saddish' time and a period of remembrance and so he had quickly written 'The Sound of It'. In searching for a 'sound analogy' he penned the line 'A cloud, a shroud, an insidious non-sound' when describing his feelings. With suggestions it was improved.
He had used the word re-occurrence to indicate a yearly event. This was not correct as this word only applies to an occasional re-happening where as recurrence is the correct word for something that happens every year. You can see that we play with words all the time!
Having slipped 'doppelgänger' into a paragraph I decided to see what a reliable source said. I quote. In fiction and folklore, it literally means a 'double-goer', a double of a living person and sometimes portrayed as a paranormal phenomenon and is usually seen as an harbinger of bad luck. Well, that should stir a few basic subliminal instincts, thoughts and probably words and maybe profane ones!
I will only add - bad luck to who or even whom!
Now - we meet again next Monday morning at 10.30am here in San Miguel.
* On BBC Breakfast this morning was a feature of a play called 'Dead Sheep' by Jonathan Maitland. It was about his take on Geoffrey Howe's 'farewell' speech in the House of Commons and the near end of Thatcher's reign. She, the lady, is portrayed by a man and he does a marvelous impersonations of her. It is fantastic what a man can do in a dress! I will leave you with that thought.
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