by Carol Howarth
The November session was to stimulate writing about Winter; either poetry or prose.
Marion presented several paintings by famous artists which were about winter.
Using one or more of the paintings, Marion led a series of timed writing periods to come at it from
Point of View
Winter as metaphor
Writing from factual accounts, Climate change/weather
Inspiration from literature or films
Writing from memories. Winters past
Using Juxtaposition
Other winter festivals – Winter solstice, Saturnalia, Feast of Juul
An example which Marion gave for Point of View, using Claude Monet's painting The Magpie:
Monet's Magpie (extract)
Little did I know,
I would live forever, claws
gripping a snow-covered gate,
Watching.
That day a lemon sun
gave an echo of Spring.
The willow fence was woven with snow;
the black trees
held cold blossom
and lines of grey clouds
tracked across the misty sky.
From : The Wednesbury Mangle Theory by Marion Cockin (Offa's Press, 2020)
Other paintings of winter used were:
Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army crossing the Alps by JMW Turner (1812)
Four Seasons: Winter by Francois Boucher (1755)
The Drum Bridge and Yuhi Hill at Meguro by Hiroshige (1857)
Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565)
Winter Scene on a Frozen Canal by Hendrick Avercamp (1620)
All these paintings are easily available to see on the internet.
Other poems used as examples are:
Snow Joke by Simon Armitage from Zoom, Bloodaxe, 1989.
Winter Swans by Owen Shears see https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/ztwvrdm/revision
A Winter Morning on the Yellow River by Bob Hale from We're All in This Together (Offa's Press, 2012)
Porridge by Carol Howarth from Library of Jackdaws (self published, 2019)
Winter in literature and films was illustrated by passages from
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen