Here are some words to go in the house book that you made at the weekend. Filled it? Make another one. Think of your house, your home, where you have been for the last year; where parts of it have gained significance that you would never have dreamed of. Walk yourself around your home, literally … Continue reading Home sweet home
Here is how to make a simple house book. You could use it as a thank you card or a collection of memories from the past year in the house, or as a special letter for someone you haven’t seen for a while. Start with a piece of A4 paper -you can of course use … Continue reading A house book 1
A friend recently sent me a paper by Vivian Gussin Paley called Listening to What the Children Say,published in the Harvard Educational Review. In it she writes about truly listening to children; about being genuinely curious about what they have to say. As she often does, Paley reflects on her own shortcomings and her sense that … Continue reading Believing
I was introduced to Edip Cansever’s poem, ‘The Table’, years ago, probably by the poet Dean Parkin. I am happy to use it again and again. It always feels so expansive. It’s the first poem in Kate Clanchy’s book How to Grow Your Own Poem. Edip Cansever ran a carpet shop in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. He … Continue reading The Table
I mentioned Kate Clanchy’s book, How to Grow Your Own Poem, in the last post. It needs proper attention as it is a good collection of poems and thoughtful guidelines for ‘growing poems’. Kate Clanchy is a poet and teacher whose work with students in an Oxford comprehensive school is widely known. One of the many … Continue reading How to Grow Your Own Poem
Many years ago, I found George Ella Lyons’ poem, ‘Where I’m From’ in a collection of American poets’ advice for young writers. It provides a welcoming frame for our own writing. It begins like this: I am from clothespins, From Clorox and carbon tetra-chloride, I am from the dirt under the back porch, (Black, glistening, it … Continue reading I am from
We’d like to introduce you to The Travelling Bookbinder. Rachel Hazell is an imaginative and generous bookbinder, teacher and lover of papery, wordy things. Her book, Bound, is a beautiful collection of book-making projects. They are all easily manageable. Each book form suggests different ideas for writing and art work. The Travelling Bookbinder has a regular … Continue reading The Travelling Bookbinder
It is always good to receive a lovely message through the post, even when it is delivered by hand -perhaps especially when delivered by hand. You may not have any post cards at home and you are not likely to be away on holiday at the moment, so what could you do? Your home is … Continue reading Cards from card.
This is a little like a found poem. You start with a text that already exists and transform it, picking words and phrases from it and covering the rest to make a new story, a poem, or even, maybe, a message. You might approach it as a ‘black-out poem’ but I prefer the idea of … Continue reading A Humument
Here is a playful way of listing words and noticing how they are formed. Make a list of words and phrases in which the last section of each becomes the first part of the following word or phrase. It could be that there are whole words within compound words: pigtail - tail end - endpaper - paper … Continue reading Word Chain
Writing Box 