Make or find a photograph of a place with which you have some sort of relationship. Write something to appear, framed, alongside the photograph. Maybe a poem?
homework
Homework for 2 May 2019
After a time of quiet, go to a tiny patch of ground outside.
1 – After a few minutes return indoors to write an objective paragraph about what you saw
2 – Make a list of the things you saw
3 – Write a second paragraph describing your personal view of what you saw
Homework for 14 February
1 – Finish / polish the piece worked on in the 31 January session
2 – Seek out another special place and ‘bring it into the room’ for us as an antidote to the stresses and strains of your / our world
Homework for January 2019
Angela Locke writes
Homework for our next session on 17 January 2019 is to
Make a list of 10 places that are special to you in the Lake District
Circle one you would like to visit before our next session
Go to that place, spend a little quiet time there
Write about it
Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Homework for 5 July 2018
The homework set by Angela for the session on 5 July was to consider carefully this speech from The Tempest
‘Our revels now are ended’
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yes, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare
From The Tempest Act 4 Scene 1
See what really stands out for you from this speech. It may be one line or the moods of the whole. Make of it what you will and write a poem (max. 50 lines) or prose (max. 300 words) based on your reaction. Bring it along to share at the session on 5 July.
I AM
Unsure of where my margins lie
I
Know only that
In my fishy depths strange energies
Pulse,
Tossing me hither and thither.
And yet,
The storms that make me heave and writhe
Pull my tears into the sky
To fall as dew on a rose’s bloom
Or rain on forest canopies.
I, passive,
Am filled by others’ lives
Their stories flowing into my depths
Until
Tranquil now, a mirror, I
Reflect the stars and sun and moon
And, yes, your face.
I cast myself in arching bows
A dove of peace upon my breast.
Kath Sunderland
Cave painting
Cave painter
in his studio
his eyes
are black
self portrait
requires
hand on
balanced
brush or
dust for
blowing
and an
inward
turned eye
the depth
of parietal
art’s mirror
to espy and
translate
to white
canvas
or cave
wall to
speak of
community’s
necessity
without
which there
is no
life or
growing
neurological
pathfinding
at all
in his studio
Rembrandt’s
eyes are
black as
also the
cave painter’s
forty
thousand
long years
before his
yet no
insight
do they
then or
today
our own
inward
eyes seeing
to the
back of
our soul’s
deep caves
ever
lack
Simon Marsh
Cave painting
I don’t know why I do this,
But something inside me needs to be expressed.
I don’t talk much.
I just feel, and see, and hear, and touch and smell.
So I make marks on the wall.
Marks that look like the things around me,
And express the things I feel inside.
Marks made from the juice of the berries I crushed,
Mixed with my blood.
I place my hand against the cold dry wall.
I fill my mouth with the warm, bitter tasting fluid,
And spit it at the back of my hand,
Until my hand and the wall are coated deep red.
Then I take my hand away,
And reveal the print of where it was.
This is me.
This is my mark.
And I was here, do you see?
I was here.
I was here.
Kevin Turpin
Homework for 24 May
(syllables 5 7 5)
Write Haiku and either a poem, or a 200 word prose poem to expand upon the theme of the Haiku with no use of adverbs (preferably) or adjectives. The work will evoke one of the four seasons.
Dear Molly
Dear Molly
It’s that time of night when fear grows tumours. But it’s also when I find a mental clarity which often eludes me these days.
Before I woke I dreamt of the day we met. Once again I saw you, walking towards me through the mist, your face, unaware of watching eyes, wrapped in a dream. And just as it had all those years ago, the veil of your hair, dew-laden, shimmered as if with a thousand tiny pearls. As soon as I saw you, Mol, I swear – the minute I clapped eyes on you – I said to myself: That’s my girl; that’s my girl.
My heart was racing when I woke and there was an ache I’ve not felt for years.
So here I am, writing a letter I won’t send like an old fool. What happened, Mol? What went wrong between us? We were great at first, you can’t deny that. Those early days, when the bed was our universe, was that love?
Having written the word ‘love’, suddenly I’m not sure what it means. I read somewhere that Eskimos have over fifty words for ‘snow.’ If that’s true then ‘snow’ becomes a generality, the heading to a category, like ‘plant’ or ‘animal.’
Maybe ‘love’ is the same.
I’ve got down the thesaurus you got me that Christmas because you were sick of me saying that everything was ‘great.’
Here are some words for love: attraction, desire, passion, adoration. And yes, in those early days we ticked all those boxes. But what about later?
There are other words in that old thesaurus: affection, kindness, friendship, treasure.
It seems to me, Mol, that friendship and affection somehow got lost along the way. How did that happen? Was it laziness? I think on my part it was stupidity. I guess I thought that as we were a couple it was job sorted. I kind of stopped seeing you, if you know what I mean. You were just a necessary presence in my life, like air or water.
I know now you tried to pull me back. ‘Listen to me! Why don’t you LISTEN to me!’ God, how many times did you yell that at me? But why did I need to listen to what I’d already heard a thousand times or about something that didn’t interest me?
That’s the problem, I switched off sight and sound so what was left?
I’ve just thought of Dante’s Inferno. Didn’t he have different levels of Hell? Well maybe there are different levels of love and if you don’t move from one to another you get stuck in a groove until it becomes unbearable. Once kindness, affection and friendship have been worn out there’s nothing left but indifference and ritual.
I’ve heard that you met someone else and are doing just fine. I’m glad, you deserve it. I met someone too and, yes, I’m very happy. Because I learnt my lesson, Mol, I’ve moved to the next level, to the treasure at the heart’s core.
Kath Sunderland
Homework for 22 Feb, with love x
In the month of Valentine Angela’s homework for our next meeting on 22 February is to write up to a page about ‘Love.’ It can be a short play, prose or poetry about love. Angela said she would prefer it to be about romantic love although it could be ironic or about sibling love. Angela cited Shakespeare’s Sonnets on love as being good examples which are particularly ironic about love.
Homework for 11th January 2018
The homework set at the last meeting on the 23rd November was to do a blog entry.
Imagine you have a blog and create a blog piece about anything you want. Aim for ‘divine creativeness’. It could be something from your day or a recent event or just a random idea you want to share on your blog. Limit it to 200 words. Have it ready for the first meeting of 2018 on the 11th January.
To help you with this look at Kathleen Jones’ ‘A Writer’s Life‘ blog
The next meeting on the 14th December is a Read and Share starting at the normal time. It will finish a little early for the Christmas lunch at the Horse and Farrier, Threlkeld.
CD
Homework for 23rd November 2017
Write a completely unpunctuated piece (prose or poetry) and set yourself a strict 10 minute time limit to do this in. No capitals, full stops etc. It should be a stream of consciousness writing form relating to an event or moment in your day. Something that moved you during that day. Possibly seasonal.
Then write it again with full punctuation. Keep both versions.
Homework for 8th June
Imagine writing a novel
1 – Think of a title
2 – Write a synopsis in 100 words
(Do a bit of research into what publishers are looking for in a ‘synopsis’)
3 – Write the first 100 words of the novel
(If you were present on 11th May, and received a ‘blessing word’
from the bowl, you may like to incorporate that word in your piece)
Homework for 11 May
Hans Christian Andersen by Anne Grahame Johnstone – see art.co.uk for info’
At our meeting on the 6th April, tutor Angela Locke invited us to enjoy her copy of this framed painting. The work features Hans Christian Andersen and some of his stories can be identified ‘around the edges.’
Writers were asked to ‘keep in the mind’s eye’ an image from the painting and – there and then – allow a piece of writing to flow from that. Great pieces ensued and were shared aloud around the table.
Homework for presentation on the 11th May involves something similar. Jot down some stories ‘around the edges’ of your young life, and distil one or some of these into 100 words.
Invisible woman
Allsorts came out of an exercise in thinking about an ‘Invisible Woman’ …
So they say
Men survey. Women are surveyed. Or so they say. Not Wilma, the Unseen Woman though. She is outside now, listening to workmen rebuilding the storm damaged wall, discussing imaginary conquests and what could be paraphrased as their bra sizes, simultaneously rolling stones into groups defined by their largeness. She goes downriver, where fishermen are comparing their catches both pescatorial and pectorial. She reaches the harbour. Here the ships are in and the sailors strutting. The talk is of salt, seaweed, barnacles and spray. Brandy and wild wide waves. Depth, and swell.
Wilma steps out of invisibility and enters the ocean.
Eileen Palmer
_______
Road building in Poland, August 1961: Lost innocence
She melded in the Tatras.
The only girl, small, neat, bright and American, among a motley bunch of British students on UN vacation work experience.
Ostensibly road building, she lit up days off in the mountains and by the river.
We met, relaxed, in pre-Wall Berlin, about to ‘do good’, naive, self-important.
We returned, frightened, to find the Wall and armed guards.
Clinging to our passports, hers, being American, was most scrutinised.
She alone stayed calm.
We all had fallen for her.
Then she disappeared.
She was called Ruth.
Charles Woodhouse
_______
Invisible
Where is my son? Handcuffed and swept,
Unwitnessed, from a street at dawn.
A hood over his head, the pressing gun
Butted against a mother left to mourn.
Jammed behind a passenger seat
Hearing only the engine’s growl,
And a passing siren that’s not for him.
An electric prod sparks, and naked
Howls leave sores exposed and weeping,
Whilst grief seeps through bones,
Turning my chestnut smooth to grey.
Everyday I visit this place
For I trust in you my Lord.
I listen to all the Government’s reasoning,
The lies fantastical – no one can quibble
Suffocate in fear and longing for truth.
Tanya Laing
_______
Understanding
The woman came to me for cutting.
My mother said NO.
I went back to school but nobody would speak to me.
Without cutting there will be no husband.
I didn’t understand.
We moved to a shack in the city.
My Mum cried. I cried.
At my new school the teacher took us to see a film.
A lady said that the cutting was bad for us.
Two of her children had died when they were cut.
The lady on the film was my Mum.
Her two children were my twin sisters Marti and Fatu.
Now I understand.
Dorothy Crowther
_______
Invisible Woman
I dress ‘to kill’ in my feathers and skills.
Shimmering moonlight fills the bedroom. The stone walls glinting, reflecting movements of the river below.
I am cool and white like the moonlight, silky, smooth.
My naked body, cool in his hands.
Weightless, substance-less, I am about to float into space, a familiar journey. When he tries to stop me.
‘Open – your – eyes,’ he commands. He wants to see me.
My body is performing skilfully but I cannot open my eyes. I am only partly there. I have almost gone. Trapped in terror between the worlds of visible and invisible.
I always make my real self invisible …
Sally Stubbs
_______
The First Time
The first time Tom saw Dylan, in 1965, there was already a buzz surrounding this young American songwriter. Queueing, Tom chatted nervously to the girl in front of him. Her A- levels, like his, were near. Once inside the City Hall she disappeared to the balcony.
Eventually Dylan was on stage and for about fifteen songs epitomised presence and lyrical virtuosity in equal measure. At the end of the best two hours of Tom’s young life he filed out for the last bus home, but under a streetlight, smiling, stood the girl from earlier. ‘I can hitch home’ he thought.
Colin Dixon
_______
Invisible Woman
Act 1
Scene One
Sunday teatime table set, linen tablecloth, lace doilies. Best china polished off and gleaming. Homemade cake, scones and strawberry jam. Hot toasted teacakes run with butter.
Around the table animated talk between mother, father and teenage children. Love, laughter and warmth radiate.
Act 1
Scene Two
Sunday teatime table set, oilcloth. Crockery chipped and mismatched. Shop bought cake. Mother’s apron hangs forlornly on a hook. Father sits alone, children grown, seeds scattered on the wayward wind.
Act 1
Scene Three
Sunday teatime table set, linen and lace. Best china adorned with homemade fare. Everyone engaged in animated conversations. Mother seated centre table, heart and soul of the family.
Mary Younger
_______
Colette
Colette knew they would be coming to claim another victim for Madame Guillotine.
Invisible in the background, never acknowledged, she was a shadow, a faithful, loyal wife. She prepared canvases, mixed paint, even painted whole areas of the portrait. He was the foremost painter of the day. The patronage of the nobility gone, he had fled to England.
The knocking on the door was insistent and she answered fearful for her life. Instantly she recognised the visitor. It was the leader of the mob who insisted she paint his portrait.
Colette became a fine miniaturist.
She divorced her husband.
Ros White
_______
On becoming invisible
Don’t look for me, I’m gone,
but look in the morning shadow across the landing,
the sag of the bed, the dregs in the cup,
the living, breathing void,
a space in the air where my heart still beats.
So eat from the fridge,
and drink from the tap,
walk on the cinder path with bare feet,
hold on to everything,
and I’ll be holding too.
And when your hand slips across the sheet
one cold early morning, seeking warmth
let me meet it,
and let me carry you across the threshold.
Lorraine Mackay
Homework for 23 March
Wow! The pens of eighteen inspired writers all but set fire to their papers in Mungrisdale this morning. Some of their work will be posted here over the next couple of weeks.
A huge welcome for those who have taken the big – and important – step of joining us for the first time. You thought you were looking for something from Mungrisdale Writers. Everyone else gained a huge amount from you! Welcome aboard.
Thanks, as ever, to those who kindly sent apologies. You were missed.
Heartfelt thanks, of course, for the inspirational Angela Locke, whose timely meditations call forth works from us that are nothing short of miracles at times. We’ve had such fun today (who could forget Trevor’s ‘Lily’?) – and been deeply moved, too.
And thanks to our chair Cathy Johnson who set us an interesting piece of homework for presentation at our next meeting on the 23rd March. Cathy proposed
In 100 words write a short scene in which a woman becomes invisible, briefly, for no explained reason … no one can see or hear her … she is not a ghost (prose or poetry)
Calendar pages
MARCH is here already – another turn of the calendar page – and hopefully you’ll have marked up yours with our March meetings – on the 9th and the 23rd. Proposed homework for the 9th is here.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, we’ve been unearthing some of Mungrisdale Writers’ early work – some of which was published in now unavailable MW booklets years ago, and more of which was stored on the floppy disks of the time (1.44mb!).
The aquisition of a new floppy disk reader has enabled retrieval of the archived Voices of the Mountain – in which, among other fine work, the late Vi Taylor’s poem Blencathra was found.
Mungrisdale Writers will celebrate 20 years in 2019 and is still an inspirational bedrock for several original members, as well as a host of newer ones over the years. 7 or 8 new writers have joined the ranks in recent times.
All this is quite an achievement – and one which founder Angela Locke can rightly be proud of. We’ll seek to celebrate all this and more, in all sorts of ways – not least, I expect, in writing!
– M&P
100 words for homework
Our tutor at Mungrisdale Writers is convinced that everyone absolutely loves housework homework and so always very kindly sets us some. (Well, sometimes not so kindly – some of it is really hard).
The latest homework doesn’t seem too bad though – even for serial homework avoiders – because it has a strict limit of 100 words set on it.
Definitely not 101 words, but as a special concession to our having had a fantastic first session of the Spring Term, there’ll be no penalty if you can only pen 99.
Homework for presentation on the 9th March – a flash fiction story with a beginning, middle and an end. No more than 100 words. Ready, steady … just get down to it …
Happy writing!
Homework reminder!
We’ve all been busy since we met for Christmas lunch way back in 2016 history. So here’s a quick reminder of the homework exercises to get stuck into before we meet on the 23rd February. (What do you mean, “I’ve already done mine” ? – you’ll be a prefect next!)
1 – Begin a short story in (close) third person 340 words (1 side of a page)
Paragraph 1 – start by setting the scene with description. It could be somewhere exotic, and the paragraph will include mood setting
Paragraph 2 – someone comes into the scene. Describe this in three or four lines
Paragraph 3 – that person speaks
Paragraph 4 – has the watching character who was waiting for the person to arrive – introduce them to us and have a line of dialogue at the end.
If all that makes you want to give up, the alternative is
2 – Find a list of collective nouns, and choose one that is fascinating to you and inspires you, or make up your own! A poem or a short piece of prose, no more than three hundred words.
See you on the 23rd. Meanwhile, happy February!
Christmas & New Year Homework
Among the many joys of being a Mungrisdale Writer, homework ranks high! There’s comfort and satisfaction to be found in curling up in a cosy armchair near the fireside, hot drink to hand, together with inviting notebook and pencil, and dream of the dawning day when we’ll have opportunity to read our works in class. (Well. You get the idea!)
So, here are a couple of exercises to get stuck into before we meet on the 23rd February.
1 – Begin a short story in (close) third person 340 words (1 side of a page)
Paragraph 1 – start by setting the scene with description. It could be somewhere exotic, and the paragraph will include mood setting
Paragraph 2 – someone comes into the scene. Describe this in three or four lines
Paragraph 3 – that person speaks
Paragraph 4 – has the watching character who was waiting for the person to arrive – introduce them to us and have a line of dialogue at the end.
If all that makes you want to give up, the alternative is
2 – Find a list of collective nouns, and choose one that is fascinating to you and inspires you, or make up your own! A poem or a short piece of prose, no more than three hundred words.
Happy writing!
Homework for 8th December
Homework: Find a couple of lines from a poem or story and continue with it yourself from the 3rd person point of view – but close third person so that you are right in the mind of the characters. This can be poetry or prose – although prose might be easier, more natural, for 3rd person.
This meeting (and Christmas Lunch) on the 8th December will be our last session until the Spring Term begins on Thursday 23rd February 2017.
– LM Sec
Meeting 24/Nov
Next meeting on Thursday 24th November, 10.30am.
Homework: a 1st person speech (soliloquy using “I”) by someone who isn’t you but you have to research a bit (eg – a countryman or woman, a streetwalker etc). The piece can be either prose or poetry in 150 words or fewer. You might look to Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ or to TS Eliot’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ for a bit of inspiration.
Report of last meeting and Homework details / video here
– M&P
Raindrops, remembering and more
A dozen writers met in Mungrisdale today for what turned out to be an inspirational morning, buzzing with light and ideas. Our tutor Angela Locke’s ability to listen to a piece of work with loving acuity enables her to offer precise and pertinent advice, together with encouragement, in every case. This gives us a marvellous sense of making progress!
Once again there was great writing from all participants and some of this will be posted here over the next week or so. The pieces posted today are Sue’s We will remember them and Tanya’s Moments.
Angela’s proposal for homework to be heard at our next meeting on the 24th November invites
a 1st person speech (soliloquy using “I”) by someone who isn’t you but you have to research a bit (eg – a countryman or woman, a streetwalker etc). The piece can be either prose or poetry in 150 words or fewer. You might look to Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ or to TS Eliot’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ for a bit of inspiration.
– M&P
Meeting 10/Nov
Mungrisdale Writers will be meeting on Thursday 10th November 2016 from 10.30am-1.30pm. Our tutor Angela Locke proposes
Homework is to look at Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Prayer’ and try to create a piece of prose or poetry inspired by it, preferably in the 1st person!
Closing my eyes now, I can hear the shipping forecast …
Incidentally, YouTube is a fabulous resource for writers – where any number of prose authors and poets can be heard discussing / reciting their work.
Hope to see you there.
– M&P
Imagery insertion
It was a wonderful session today, deeply inspiring. Everyone was at the top of their game, and there was such good writing from all the participants.
We looked at Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Prayer‘ (see YouTube) – one of her most moving – to show the way that imagery can be inserted into a poem with surgical precision and be so effective.
Homework is to look at the poem again, and try to create a piece of prose or poetry inspired by it, preferably in the 1st person!
– AL
Meeting 27/Oct
Mungrisdale Writers will be meeting on Thursday 27th October 2016 from 10.30am-1.30pm. Our tutor Angela Locke suggests
‘If you feel like doing any homework – no pressure! – a piece of prose or a poem in the present tense and the 1st person, that is, I and me, which is about or includes a sense – taste, touch, smell, sight, sound, or even a 6th sense?’
Autumn colours are providing us with some wonderful inspiration. Hope to see you there.
– M&P
Mungrisdale Writers 