Last week’s workshop at Bradgate Park was very enjoyable: a full house despite the rainy weather.\u00a0 We wrote poems loosely (very loosely) based on sonnet forms.<\/p>\n
In the time since the last workshop, I visited the Record Office at Wigston (https:\/\/www.leicestershire.gov.uk\/leisure-and-community\/history-and-heritage\/visit-the-record-office\/about-the-record-office).\u00a0 If you’re interested in local history, family history and related subjects then it’s a treasure trove, and the staff are really helpful.\u00a0 Whilst looking for records relating to Bradgate Park, I found catalogue of a sale of land and buildings at the Park and in the surrounding areas, from the 1920s.<\/p>\n
Having selected some phrases and typed them up, I challenged the poets to include phrases from the catalogue in their poems; some were easier than others to make use of!\u00a0 “Amidst fine woodland scenery” and “timber-capped ridges overlooking views” are fairly straightforward.\u00a0 Less obvious are “attainted and convicted of treason” or “no person shall advance”!<\/p>\n
I enjoyed listening to examples from everyone’s writing despite running over time – these workshops fly past (amidst fine woodland scenery).\u00a0 The next workshop is at 10.30 on Tuesday, June 19th – You can book\u00a0 a place by calling 0116 236 2713 extension 25 between 11 and 3.30 any day, or \u00a0by visiting the Visitor Centre.<\/p>\n
In the end, it’s all about poetry, and I’m very grateful to Brian Owens for this contribution from the Spring workshop.\u00a0 It opens with the brilliant close-up image of “tiny razored teeth” of new nettles, and ends with Spring emerging despite “Winter’s final spiteful fling”; a phrase that sounds great as well as being effective description.\u00a0 Thanks to Brian; look forward to more contributions as the year goes on.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Winter to Spring.<\/strong><\/p>\n The tiny razored teeth of emerging stinging nettles rasp<\/p>\n through the flattened chewed grasses<\/p>\n Close besides the fibromyalgia contorted limbs of cankered<\/p>\n rotting oaks<\/p>\n The stretching copper tipped spears of lengthening sedges<\/p>\n search for the muted overcast Spring light<\/p>\n Scattered amongst the sodden, dimpled deer-trampled<\/p>\n cushions of torn and ridged ground<\/p>\n The wistful warming west wet winds brush the faces of<\/p>\n walkers and huddled ramblers<\/p>\n Past drenched ditches half filled with cold Winter’s lashing<\/p>\n rains and Siberian snows<\/p>\n Winter’s final spiteful fling rails against the tumbled fences<\/p>\n and the inevitable coming dance of joyful Spring.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brian Owens<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week’s workshop at Bradgate Park was very enjoyable: a full house despite the rainy weather.\u00a0 We wrote poems loosely (very loosely) based on sonnet forms. In the time since the last workshop, I visited the Record Office at Wigston (https:\/\/www.leicestershire.gov.uk\/leisure-and-community\/history-and-heritage\/visit-the-record-office\/about-the-record-office).\u00a0 If you’re interested in local history, family history and related subjects then it’s aRead more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":515,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[8,4,17,7],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bradgate-park","category-poetry","tag-leicestershire","tag-poetry","tag-spring","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/515"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}