10 May Unearthed – Writing from the Soil

I have a new writing workshop focusing on the soil beneath us.

The soil provides our food and fuel but hidden within it is both life and death: hidden worlds, myriad life forms and evidence of ancient communities. Turn over a lump of soil and discover worms and centipedes, find evidence of animals living below the soil – rabbit burrows, little tiny mounds made by mining bees, a round hole leading down to a mole’s palace.

What treasures can we unearth from the soil to fire our imaginations and stir our senses? Look deep beneath the ground and find evidence of past civilisations.

I used to live next to an Anglo-Saxon burial ground and sometimes thought I could hear the whispers of their lives. My poem, Anglo-Saxon Burial Ground is on my portfolio page. Here are the first lines:

 They sleep,

Under the ground

Pressed in cold soil

In layers deep

Below the plough.

Full details of Unearthed – Writing from the Soil here:

Wednesday 5 July 10.30am -3.30pm
Venue: Thornham Walks classroom, Thornham Estate, Gislingham Road, Thornham Magna, near Eye IP23 8HH.

Cost: £15 with £3 reduction for members of Waveney & Blyth Arts and Suffolk Poetry Society

This workshop will consider how poetry and prose can reflect the unearthing of nature and history and encourage you to try writing on this theme.

Start with readings over coffee and then walk out across the Thornham estate to search for evidence of soil burrowers – moles, rabbits, mining bees, earthworms.

We return to the classroom for lunch and a short writing session, unearthing ideas and transforming them into short poems or prose pieces to reflect thoughts about the world beneath us.

Teas and Coffees included. An optional pre-booked sandwich lunch

To book please contact Waveney & Blyth Arts direct on bookings@waveneyandblytharts.com

Other Waveney & Blyth Arts events where I will be involved include:

• a walk with Meg Amsden focusing on otters – the tracks and traces they leave behind, both physically and in our imagination.
• a writing workshop with Beth Soule featuring a specially created grass labyrinth.

For details of these see www.waveneyandblytharts.com