Erskine Writers Meeting 5th November 2024

 Apologies were received from Donnie, Hilary, Joan, Lorna, Elizabeth, Jeannie and Ted.

This was our first workshop of the session and was one based on poetry. Our guest was Jenny Lindsay a performance poet from Maybole in Ayrshire. Originally a singer/ songwriter and Modern Studies teacher, a burglary at her flat in Edinburgh when her trusty electric piano was stolen forced her into reciting her lyrics rather than singing them at various open mic events. This was favourably received and she hasn’t looked back since. Describing herself as a political/feminist poet she has also written plays, literary essays and, as a freelance writer, is a regular columnist with, amongst others, The Times, The Spectator and The Australian.
The underlying theme of her workshop was taking the fear out of writing poems and she had designed or cobbled from others four exercises which the group were to undertake. Each exercise was very closely timed, Jenny actually employing a timer from which she counted us down to the very last second, and lasted for seven minutes - “seven being a magical number”
Initially we were to write on the theme of “the world is not watching” - a poem written in sleep. Anything and everything could be included as long as the pen never left the paper. If we stalled at any point, we were to continue to write the words “I am writing” until the muse rejoined us.
Secondly, a list poem based on one of Jenny’s own works written about an ex-boyfriend. This could be things I love, hate, remember etc and we were allowed to pause during the this exercise.
The third offering was a poem written about a specific feature of a loved one - be it one at which we “marvelled” or one we loathed. This could be anything from snoring (which was used!) to the time taken to apply make-up to things of a more general nature.
Finally, we were to write a poem based on the views from a specific window. This was structured with first the view, then the sounds followed by the smells associated with it. This was then developed with the idea of, as we stared out of the window, we were clutching something we held most dear and finally when the view was interrupted by a a visitor of some description.
It was a very enjoyable afternoon and quite challenging but cleverly designed to achieve the ultimate goal of approaching poetry writing with greater confidence.
Her challenge for the competition was to write a poem based on one of the following 
The Window Exercise, Someone You Love who has an annoying habit or The Truth.
Maximum of 40 lines to Morag by 3rd December.