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| Me reading my poem |
The last month has been manic. We are still in the middle of
the Jewish High Holy Days, which have taken large chunks out of the usual
working week. Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year landed during the first week
of my University MA Course. That week also saw the launch of the Welcome to
Leicester Poetry Anthology (see details below). I was one of the readers, performing my poem,
Leicester Market 1963. I was rather tired by the end of that week.
Last week was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. We
fasted to ask for forgiveness for all our sins – another busy day, then! The
fast was broken by a lovely meal with a group of old friends and lots of
friendly chat and discussions; my kind of evening. The next morning I ran a
meeting with the planning team of our Thinking Allowed monthly discussion
group. The topic this month will be Why Trump? and inevitably there was much
discussion during the planning process.
This week is Sukkot. People erect a temporary structure
called a Sukkah in their garden and eat meals out there. It must have mainly
leaves for a covering and I think you should be able to see at least one star
through the roof. I was honoured to be invited to the Rabbi’s house to eat in
their Sukka. It was a fascinating – if slightly chilly - evening with lots of
in-depth discussions ranging from archaeological findings in Jerusalem to the
meaning of beauty. You can never have too many discussion sessions. I was in my
element.
In-between it all I’ve been trying to get to grips with the
MA Course. One of the fascinating aspects of this Semester’s work is Research
in Creative Writing, the study of the actual writing process; what goes on in
my mind when I plan to write, get down to writing, rewriting. It’s a difficult
concept to get a hold of because a lot of the planning and honing happens while
I’m doing other things and often when I’m not even aware of it. Take this blog
post for example:
I decided to relate the business of my month and to
introduce this idea of researching creative writing. I am now sitting at the
computer typing this with no pre-prepared notes and no plan to redraft (this
was not the case. I redrafted a little). It’s more like a chat with you
although I suspect the actual content has been percolating in my mind over
night, having decided last night to write it. One of the problems with trying
to study a subject like creative writing scientifically is that we are human
beings and don’t perform well in laboratory conditions – but it is providing me
with plenty of material to chat about. Like I said, you can never have too many
discussions.
How would you analyse your creative writing process?
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| Poetry anthology, "Welcome to Leicester" is published by Leicester-based Dahlia Publishing and was edited by Emma Lee and Ambrose Musiyiwa. |
