Luke Wright and I are half way through our sessions for Well Versed, and last Friday delivered the first showcase event for the first school in the country to have completed this initial part of the project.  All of the schools have different requirements, and  Northgate High in Dereham dedicated two full school days to writing and learning how to perform the work they were going to deliver in the Friday showcase – a performance in front of the rest of the school year, their parents and teachers.  The performance went extremely well, and everybody who read their work out  overcame their nerves – this was  initially quite a daunting prospect.

We worked with a group of 20 pupils, chosen from different classes over year 9, for their ability to take on new experiences and thrive in them.  It was extremely pleasurable to work with a group of young people who were not afraid of putting their hands up to answer questions even if they didn’t fully understand the question.  Who ever does fully understand the questions, especially where poetry is involved!  Our work was helped enormously by the participating teacher Kira Haslam, who is a song-writer herself.  She set an example to the pupils by taking part in the exercises herself and was generally on hand to help with the smooth-running of the workshops and the organising of the showcase.

Luke and I split the four days roughly into four sessions, and took turns to lead them, focusing on Imagery, Musicality, Narrative and Voice, as rough subject headings. We set them many writing exercises and games around these themes using published and professionally performed work as examples.  It was very much a crash-course but the sense of urgency of the showcase was a great focusing device.  There was a lot of very good writing produced during those two days, but I think the most important part of this project is the legacy – hopefully we have shown them that poetry is not something which they need be alienated by –  and the writing and the reading of poetry which will happen now Luke and I have gone.

Day 25, and a miraculous parting of the boxes in my studio has occurred.  I say ‘miraculous’, but miraculous doesn’t leave you with backache, does it.  It was actually really nice, despite the resulting pain, to have a day of doing things around the house after being out working like normal people do all week.  I even went out and bought a table for the studio.  This is serious stuff.  I was going to get a second hand one, but it turned out that a new pine one was much cheaper than an old pine one.

Of course, I will need to bash it about a bit so it looks a bit distressed – to make it look like an authentic studio table.  Maybe a thin coat of white satin, for the full-blown shabby-chic look. Oh, and some chipped edges, it must have some chipped edges.  Anyway, I have till Friday when it arrives to cogitate on the methods of distressing.

I seem to have spent the whole week driving to and from schools in the dark and the rain for the Well Versed project.  I can’t quite believe we are only in the second week of January because the workshop schedule has been so packed.  I realise that most people do 9 hour days at work, but I am lucky in that I am usually able to plan the shape of my days.  This means that I often don’t have a week end – I have perpetual weeks without end, but it appears to suit me.

A workshop group of ex-students has just left my house, Martin is out,  and this is the first time I have been on my own, and quiet all day.  I say ‘quiet’, but I have the clicking of keyboard keys and the sounds of these words in my head.  Also, the habits of house – the occasional buzz of the walls, which is possibly a normal radiator pipes thing, or a a hive of bees with kazoos nesting in its bones.  There is the sound of the occasional car driving through rain and curiously, birds singing into the dark.

Rattling off a session on narrative this morning to deliver for Well Versed on Thursday. The sun is shining but we have our office blinds part closed because, well, they are part broken.  New ones coming some time this week – probably when no one is in.  We have tried pulling the blinds up entirely, but because it is an old shop window,filling  the whole of the front of the house, people look straight in and are probably very disappointed not to see bacon and viscera.

In the advent of the office bookshelf, the room I am going to be using as my studio is getting tantalizingly close to being a room rather than a book box storage area.  Then I will be able to have a squinny at all of the ephemera and bits and pieces I have been collecting over the past few years and see if they amount to a row of beans. Hopefully a few rows of beans.  I intend to make some 3D collages so I can have some more images to put on my ‘Sketches’ page.  I don’t see them as finished pieces really, just rough approximations of something.  Looking forward to being creative again.  In the meantime, I am bracing myself for a whole week of school work and intend to be pepped up on bananas and coffee throughout.  Living life on the edge. [insert tigerface here]

Yesterday was the first actual proper day back at work. By this I mean standing in front of a group of people who are expecting something from me. The people were a class of year 9 students, and this was the Well Versed project (link in last entry, below), which aims to promote the reading and writing of poetry in schools and to build a legacy in the participating schools. How this is different to other school projects I have been involved in, is that teachers from each of the schools (LW and I are working with three Norfolk schools) have participated in a series of workshops with educator/poets, to prepare the ground for our sessions. This makes a world of difference, and the teacher we worked with at Attleborough High yesterday was brilliant. Co-running sessions with two other people is something I have never done before, but because we all have clear shared aims and objectives, yesterday’s first session went very well indeed.

Luke and I were both flagging a little after the three hour session – me more than him it has to be said. We will need to build up our match fitness up again – next week should help with that as we have four days altogether in schools. I really don’t know how school teachers do it, and take my hat off to them. (we discussed dying metaphors yesterday, and I believe that phrase fits that bill. (as does that one))

As I type, builders are working just to my right, and a hulking great book case is looming over me. When I paint it and we fill it with books, it will look a lot less daunting…it is hoped.

Time really has begun again, but this had nothing to do with the emptying of bins. The bins are still there – they are all grey now, crowding the paths and accosting pedestrians.

This past month, I haven’t really had to look at the calendar and have somehow been in denial of all the busyness of the oncoming weeks. I am starting a school project tomorrow called Well Versed which is really exciting, but I will to get myself in the tutoring zone again. *spins round like wonderwoman* (nope it didn’t work). I am working with Luke Wright on this project – which has paired ‘page poets’ with those known largely for for performing their work.

I wandered the Heath earlier to shift the furniture around in my head. One of the reasons for moving house was to be nearer the Heath, so we could just take ourselves off for bracing and edifying walks without any need for preparation other than shoving on sturdy boots. Apparently, in order to walk on the heath, part of the kit is also a dog. I felt decidedly dogless as I strode up the hill saying hello to cheery people and their grinning dogs. But at least, I didn’t have a bag of poo in my pocket, I’m grateful of that.