Well, hang on, #63 goes as far as Brockley. That's on the way by several
miles.
Formats vary but stay the same.
We gather downstairs in the pub and sometimes hang on there till after 4
if we know or think we know someone is coming.
But generally we go upstairs around 4 and sit around, sometimes inheriting
a furniture configuration, sometimes moving it a bit, sometimes coping
because there's an odd but deliberate layout for a later event.
I usually say something ex cathedra, ex convenor, though I may not be the
first to speak; it's rather informal.
There are not many of us for various reasons; but that's not the main point.
I have noticed that I tend to say _who would be first?_ which may be
indicative of pedantry. (Later I say _who would be next?_... I may stop
now I have vocalised it. I always forget until I have done it again weeks
later.)
Someone reads. Someone else reads. We time out or run out of work.
Over the last 18 months or so, talking about the work has increased
greatly. The implicit injunction has always been not to make destructive
criticism (e.g. I don't call that poetry, that's not a sonnet, being
widespread obviuous examples of what we are trying to avoid.)
Clearly, from bits and pieces archived that I have read, that was
happening in the early days in the 50s and a bit later. In those days
typed texts sent in advance were the order of business. By the time I
started going in the early 70s, work was received without comment or
enthusiasm. This was Cobbing. I am not sure how many would have had the
imagination to steer it in another direction without any aesthetic /
ideological undertow. If he really couldn't cope, he tended to say
nothing; mostly he said _very good_ but without much emphasis on either
word. I'd like to think that I would be where I am now, but it seems
unlikely. Many / most groups I have seen or attended or read to seem to
have an agenda.
Now and then people can't take it and don't come back because the
aesthetic preference of the group is clear even if indefinable. But it is
broad and it is wider than the insipid _linguistically innovative poetry_
which I have tried to love as a definition and cannot.
We work on the inherited assumption that if there is anything to what *one
does then others will respond. You can and always could comment, but you
did it by saying _it might be even better if..._ or some such
I think that is good pedagogy
Just now I would say that everyone of the regulars is surprising us every
time, and with a delight, and a different one every time, so that all you
want to do is praise first. Then maybe comment.
Publications can show other directions though wf is not publishing so much
nowadays as it once did. The occasional invitation can be directional but
in a good way. It may be that everyone knows the invitee. If not,
implicitly I am saying _listen to this_
That's about it. People are welcome to attend without reading and some
come wanting to be judged, feeling it seems that they have missed out
unless a magister says _correct the following errors_
L
On Wed, February 8, 2012 08:01, Andrew Burke wrote:
> What's the format, Lawrence? Out of curiosity - too far to go, of course.
> Andrew
>
>
> On 8 February 2012 01:33, Sheila Murphy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>> Wish I could join you! Sounds great. Cheers, Sheila
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 10:22 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> The next WF Workshop is Saturday 18th February 2012 3:30 for 4 pm
>>> (until
>>>
>> 6
>>
>>> pm)
>>>
>>> at The Betsey Trotwood, Farringdon Rd
>>>
>>> No charge
>>>
>>>
>>> All welcome
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----
>>> UNFRAMED PICTURES by Lawrence Upton
>>> 42 pages; A5 paperback; colour cover
>>> Writers Forum 978 1 84254 277 4
>>> wfuk.org.uk/blog ----
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> http://www.mullamullapress.com/QWERTY
> BLUE ROSE enovel avail. at Amazon, Smashwords and
> http://etextpress.com/books.htm
>
>
-----
UNFRAMED PICTURES by Lawrence Upton
42 pages; A5 paperback; colour cover
Writers Forum 978 1 84254 277 4
wfuk.org.uk/blog
----
|