by Roger Noons
Yet another Zoom for our February meeting, a workshop led by published poet, Cherry Doyle. We knew well in advance that it was going to be on the subject of The Seasons. What we didn’t know, until Cherry circulated examples of poems by such writers as Saaid Shire, Matt Rasmussen and Carol Ann Duffy, as well as one of her own, that they were going to be Backwards Poems. This was a new concept for our members and initially caused wide consternation.
When we began however, on traditional lines, some of the mist cleared. We were invited to choose a memory of an event and list details associated with it. Then, thinking of the season, list indicators of when the event occurred, in order to show, rather than tell. For example, beginning with During the week before Wimbledon tells us precisely when the event took place, instead of using the phrase early summer.
The third stage of preparation was to list phrases/sentences with verbs, the stronger and more specific, the better. The final step needed to bring the three stages together and reverse the actions which made up the event.
We generated such lines as :-
Rambling roses climb down
Carrots read their life story on brightly coloured packets
Spit rice into the paella pan
Brown leaves unpeel from frozen puddles
Solstice leaches into equinox
Unsleep the lap and lick of languid water
Apples, pears and damsons unplucked are back on their branches
Everyone agreed the workshop had been challenging, but the rewards thrilling. Cherry was unanimously thanked and congratulated. The measure of our members achievements have already been recorded on the Bilston Dozen Facebook page.