Saturday 19 July 2014

Retreating

I spent this week at a writing retreat at Bore Place, in Kent. The venue was an old Tudor manor house, called Commonwork, nestled in the Kentish countryside, a sustainable organic farm, education centre and conference venue. The participants were academics from Plymouth, Worcester and the LSE, led by two professional writers. It has been a privilege and a transformative experience spending a week with these creative and intelligent people; it is gratifying to know that the power of ideas generated by a small group such as this remains a force for good in the world . . . and it only takes 4 minutes!

I left for home today with so many ideas to explore; let's hope they are not subsumed by the blanket of frustration that will inevitably fall on the mental processes on return to the 'real world'. I had an interesting journey to Shirley where my sister lives; along grassy lanes and hidden greenways, around the periphery of civilisation, sneaking between the A-roads and below the M25, where commuters broiled them selves in their hotboxes like Christmas chestnuts.

 


Old bricks,

they breathe

a sigh of memory,

resting into the land,

they endure

Kings and commons,

passing generations;

settled now, to work,

to make a new

Jerusalem.

 

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