In his poem, [little tree] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47304/little-tree, e e cummings imagines the spangles that sleep all year in a dark box dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine, the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads Today, we are thinking of spangles from the year. You can write about things from the year … Continue reading Spangles
Today I thought we could look for lovely things. I thought of the idea when I read this little poem by Sara Teasdale. Night Stars over snow And in the west a planet Swinging below a star – Look for a lovely thing and you will find it. It is not far – It never … Continue reading Look for a lovely thing
Just at the moment, we are not able to meet many people, to sit around and chat, to share stories, to imagine things together. There are probably people who you are missing. They will be missing you. You may also know of people who live alone and never see anyone, from one day to the … Continue reading A Kindness of Words
I have been digging up weeds in my garden and I have been learning about worms. They are amazing creatures, moving tons of earth every year, adding nutrients to the soil and making drainage holes that allow minerals to run deep into the ground and feed the plants that grow there. Yet there is very … Continue reading Up close
Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic – is ever wasted. P D James This advice is about noticing. Whatever happens to you. Who you meet. What you notice. All these things are good for a writer. Take notice … Continue reading Advice from a writer 2
The poet, Alice Oswald, often places walking at the centre of her writing. She walks the distance of the rivers she has written about – the Rover Dart, the Severn – and she walks in the lanes around her Devon home. Last week, when asked what she had been doing during this time of enforced isolation, … Continue reading Magnifying glass
The artist, Richard Long, makes walking an art form. He documents the walks he takes in words and photographs. He often builds structures or carries stones from place to place, leaving then at points along the way. He once walked from the west to the east coast of England, picking up a stone from the … Continue reading Walk with a preposition
Keeping a record of what we see around us needs only a few minutes each day. When you look back you can remember all the things that you have learned about the plants and creatures that surround us. In the late eighteenth century Gilbert White kept a Naturalist’s Journal and we can still learn from … Continue reading Timothy the Tortoise
Things, everyday things, bring us into a place, a time, even a feeling. Ordinary everyday things can bring a piece of writing alive. That is one reason we often ask you to think of list of objects, names of people and places. What we’d like you to do today is to think of materials -things like … Continue reading Stuff
Today is earth day. This year, the day marks fifty years since the founding of the environmental movement in 1970. So we thought you might like to write for the earth. Write what you love about the earth and its creatures. Write a praise song. Give thanks. It’s a list! You could begin each line … Continue reading Earth day
Writing Box 