Creative Workshops 2007
March Writing Newsletter
By means of the awakening
below, comes the awakening on high.
Kabbalist maxim
|
STOP PRESS Bobotie, Bosman and Boerewors
Fri 2 March The It is not the story that
counts. It's the way you tell it I’ll be offering Bosman
classics on the banks of the |
Dear writer
The Kabbalist quotation is from Lawrence Kushner’s, Invisible Lines of Connection. He argues, that by doing what we believe in,
we awaken powers in another universe.
It seems too, that when we write, we
call the future by name. Its waters fill
our bucket. The ending of the title poem in Drawing
Water suggests:
our rope of words raises
waters of tomorrow
and draws to our lips.
Writing is alive. It accompanies us
into the future. Reading our work seasons after we wrote it, we catch up with
the other meanings. Recently I re-read one of the poems in this collection.
Matching
Faces
in the Sciencentre
like gods we make faces.
we peer at each other
through a glass and mirror frame,
a slatted venetian blind.
my eyes arrive between
teen head and chin.
he gets forehead, lips and stubble.
so this is bald, he calls
so those were pimples, I think.
we shift. his eyes ring
the equator my face.
mine shine between
his cancer and capricorn.
in early years
we matched card faces:
baker, farmer, robber, cop.
now father and son, in mixing ages,
hint at and hold a line
that genes in chingrin, mapcrack
and seadeep eyes.
I suddenly grasped that this is also
about the relationship between a writer and reader.
Together we construct the face of a
text.
Poem
Poem Poem (PPP) Making Poetry
Count down. The new email four-month poetry course begins I March. 12
have signed up so far. Room for 4 more aspirants. We work in groups of
5/6. Bob Commin, poet, writer, storyteller, priest, and I will be running this.
There will be a syllabus (20 poets to be savoured), input on poetic technique
(rhythm, image, cadence, metre, rhyme)
an assignment section and group conversations around your work. This
course is for those who perhaps lost touch with poetry at school and now wish
to reconnect to that energy. Flyer on request.
Write Write Write: Writers’ Development: Email Course (WWW)
The third WWW (Write Write Write)
course in life story and fiction is underway -
Feb- May 07. Welcome Kathy, Hazelle, Bobby, Linda, Fern, Lawnese,
Evelyn, Carol. Elma Pollard works with me on this, She also offers life
coaching. (Elma’s email starlight@wol.co.za.
084 868 2908) Next WWW runs Aug- Nov 07.
Workshops
The
River Journey: Using Images to Enrich your Writing R370
Sun 25 Feb (25 Impala Cres, La Lucia
10.00 -16.30) THIS SUNDAY
Keep writing in the dark…
Words that may have the power
to make the sun rise again
Denise Levertov
As human beings
we are forever comparing. (“My love is like a red red rose.”) And when we
compare, we stumble on hidden connections.
This workshop
is about using imagery in our writing. An image is a bolt of energy from the
writing blue. It’s about developing a new way of seeing that opens to
adventure. For images are about the unexpected. We consider how words create
new realities.
Beginner
writers are welcome.
Men, Women and Masks (with Bob Commin)
16-18 March
Fri eve to Sun after lunch
in the hills of Ixopo…KZN Ixopo Buddhist Retreat Centre 039 834 1863 brcixopo@futurenet.co.za (Bookings
needed for this to happen)
The true
purpose of masks is not concealment but transformation. A culture of masks
is one that understands the process of metamorphosis
Salman Rushdie
This journey involves mask
making, writing, story-telling, poetry and land art. We explore
the masks that we wear in relation to each other. Over this
weekend men meet men, women meet women and then men and women
meet in dialogue. We will seek in nature items to adorn
our masks. Please bring crayons, pastels, glue, masking tape.
Egoli
Exchanging
Energies - Writing your Book R420
71Kallenbach Drive, Linksfield Ridge
09.30 -16.15
This workshop is about writing that
book that has been hiding inside you for too long. Writing is about a
conversation with yourself and with others. An exchange of energies. Writing is
a skill not talent.
The workshop will benefit people who
want to
· write a life
story
· write fiction or
poetry
· explore
research in a new way
· share spiritual
insights
· process the
changes that are happening to them
The Helderberg Writing Escape (Helderberg
School of Writing) 1-5 May 07 (see Nov 06
A five day writing extravaganza. Six place left. Jo Castro and I had much fun with the
2006 group. 2006 participants write: “The
workshop was excellently run and so inspirational.” (MC)” I valued the
atmosphere of openness and trust.” (PM) “I loved the
personal attention and the participation”
(GH)
We’ll be writing and mentoring at a
wine farm and in the Helderberg Nature Reserve. The escape offers exploration,
discovery and personal attention as we live the life of writers. Jo is an
international freelance journalist who coaches in the genres of magazine
writing, travel and copywriting.
and
as winter cometh….
Place,
People and Personal Stories: A West
Coast Writing Workshop R290
Come, and celebrate living along the
West Coast. Write your stories of nature, characters and memories. Write of the
rich fossil past. Find the writer inside you. Explore your creativity and
imagination and learn how to be at home with words. Participants can write in
English or Afrikaans. Beginner writers are welcome. Bring a light lunch to
share.
Neil Stevenson
of Leopard Press invites you to
Launch of Dorian’s poetry book Drawing Water
Live Poets’ Society (LiPS)
Quarterdeck, Point Yacht Club,
Franschoek Literary Festival 11-13 May
Through Bill
Morris of Franschoek, I have discovered a group of farm workers and security
guards who are keen on writing poetry. I’ll be facilitating poetry workshops
leading to a publication to be ready for the Festival (for your diary?) I wish
to thank Gordon Collins, a man rich in story and a writer whom I’ve mentored,
for his generous sponsorship of part of the worker workshops/publication.
Mentoring
I asked
Catharina Helena, whom I’m mentoring, if I could share this poem we have worked
on:
Pelissier
Karee trees
growing out
from the
graveyard behind me
suck nutrients
from the soils.
dead leaves
and immigrants
push up
through their trunks.
buds secrete
them through sprays in spring.
Sweet, white
and male
the pollen
sticks to my body
when I fall
down alone upon the love-seat
on my side of
the wall.
it clings ,
needing to come home to my bed.
This is how
much these particles
missionaries,
neighbouring trees and all the earth
demand to be
part of me
and how I let
them.
A
Publishing
Kathy Chenault whom I mentored,
(before
I'm working as nonfiction editor for a
literary journal preparing to launch its first edition. I urge you to
encourage your writing friends to submit their work for possible publication.
The journal, Quay, will be
publishing poetry, plays, memoir, fiction and nonfiction. Anyone interesting in
submitting should visit the website: quayjournal.org and follow the link to
submissions.
Workshops/Literary
Events with other Folk
Poet David Whyte’s Visit:
17 April 18.00
Sharon Jansen (Sharon@mscoaching
.co.za ) writes “David Whyte the poet, in SA in April/May will be having one only
public event at Hollard Insurance in Parktown at 18.00 hours. Tickets
R200pp. Website for bookings available soon.
David Whyte infuses poetry into corporate life. A fine writer.
Poetry
eve in
Thurs 29 March 19.30
Bob Commin hosts a poetry evening
featuring poets Brain Walter and Norman Morrissey, two published award-winning
poets who run workshops in the
(h) 021 447 9550 082 2025303 bcommin@netactive.co.za
Writing
your Book -Tips, tools and deepening the work
Sat March 10 (R400.00) Sun March 11th (R300.00)
with Gillian Barton & Linda Bredenkamp
Gillian on 022 492 2562 or 072 206
0594 gbarton@bluebottle.com
The Towers Farm, Darling (1 hour north
of
Writing a book is like building a
house. You need an idea, a design and a variety of tools in your toolbox
whether you’re building an adobe in the desert or a skyscraper in downtown
Gillian
Barton, an experienced facilitator,r runs creative writing workshops using
sandplay and the arts. Linda Bredenkamp is a professional editor, who has been
involved in the publishing business for many years.
Tredicis in the
If you are
wanting to write, seek the company of writers. Paul and Fadelah host Hugh
Hodge’s Off the Wall Poetry readings
– mid and last Wed of every month. (hahodge@gmail.com). Aneta Shaw, poet and
therapist, on for 28 Feb. I host Between
the Covers Story-Telling evening first Thurs of every month. Next story eve
1 March. Both these evenings begin with an invited poet / story-teller then
it’s open mike. Bring your words or come and listen.
A New Publication: Southern African
auto/biographies
Selves in Question: Interviews on Southern African
Auto/biography (Univ of
Recently Read…
I loved Carol
Shields’ Unless. “Happiness is the lucky pane of glass you carry in your
head. It takes all your cunning to hang on to it.” A daughter of a writer drops
out and takes to a street corner in
May you and
your reader create faces. May the created future leap into your writing bowl.
Dorian
PS Thank you to all those who circulate this letter. Sign off if you need to.
Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086 511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com