I have two saved drafts of Blog Posts – one is entitled ‘Happiness’ from July last year and the other ‘Wellbeing’ from February this year. I am not sure why I didn’t publish either of these. I think it was partly because of other demands on my time but maybe they just weren’t shouting loud enough to be heard.
Then, suddenly – we found ourselves here. Here in lockdown, where language has taken on a different meaning and the world has shifted. As the world started to shift, so did each of our lives. Now, words and phrases like lockdown, social isolation, shielding, pandemic, stay safe, face masks, hand washing, infection, relaxing the rules, Furlough, 2 metre distance, daily death rates, meeting outside, daily exercise, Zoom and Zoom fatigue, have become part of our vocabulary and some of these have taken on a different weight and meaning.
We count the days since Boris’s ‘Stay Home’ broadcast and we are each attempting to deal with our own personal news. We realise who and what is really important to us, now more than ever. Uncertainty and a new normal lurk around every corner. There is so much pain and yet so much to be grateful for.
Community: What does this mean right now?All I know is this, I am so lucky to have different communities around me – taking on their own form and shape. My Community Engagement Role at the Charterhouse has been paused while I am on Furlough but the thread that connects me to this magical heritage site remains. I am thinking about what a new community engagement could look like, at least temporarily. I am taking part in online training and conversations so when the time comes – I hope I can contribute. Fortunately, I have been able to stay connected to some of the community groups that I have been facilitating Creative Writing Workshops for and we write together over Zoom and the phone.
My family and friends are a precious community and one I say thanks for every day.
The Creative Writes community has remained an essential part of my lockdown life and we have new members joining our regulars, from across Europe and the UK – thanks to the wonders of Zoom. Words & Wine happens fortnightly, for those on our mailing list and Space to Write is every Monday afternoon. We have also added our Free Flow Fridays on Meetup. I have found myself reading and discussing Greek Mythology with a new teenage student and discovering that the theme of Change was the glue holding my American student’s screenplay together.
I have made my first teaching videos and I am researching for a new poetry resource project, in collaboration with Arts in Care Homes.
I have also found time for my own writing and participated in lovely Sunday morning Zoom workshops, facilitated by Jane & Kath from The Writing Retreat.They are based in Cornwall, so I wouldn’t usually be able to pop over for a few hours – definite advantage of this new world!
Change is not just the theme for my student’s writing, it is the core of our new existence.
As Erin Bolens says in her poem ‘Miss Pandemic 2020’: “Everything has changed.” Like many, we took inspiration from this poem at Creative Writes. I have shared it below, along with a selection of edited words from our writers.
Creative Writes Zoom Workshops
Miss Pandemic 2020
You do not have to be productive. You are not a dairy cow or a field of wheat. Nothing will grind to a halt if you do not take up the ukulele, learn Spanish, start to crochet, master Pilates.
This is not a competition, there will be no ‘Miss Pandemic 2020’ you cannot get a sash out of this, you cannot win a crisis,
only hold each second like you might hold a hand and think what can I do with you? And you and you? before long you will have collected a minute.
Minute collecting is my new hobby. I’m practising a lot. I’m trying to do it carefully and slowly as possible and when I cry I use the minutes I’ve collected to keep myself up.
I look around for those minutes and see what lives there and then I start again. Everything has changed. It is okay for this not to feel like a holiday. It’s not a holiday
we are scared of air. I tried to do yoga yesterday but instead swore at the screen and had a coffee and that’s okay.
Erin Bolens
Miss Pandemic 2020
We are scared of air
Infected
Contaminated
Don’t breathe in the slip stream
You thought it was six foot
But it’s not
It’s ten foot
We are scared
Of each other
R.C
Mr 2020 Pandemic
My question for Mr 2020 Pandemic; Are you just as simple as the government’s latest gimmick? Look and you will see, are we ignorant to 5G? On this occasion, could someone explain to me, what is behind the rush of 5G and its implementation? One and all I don’t want to scare. But they dare, to blame their claim of this Chinese Epidemic as a Pandemic. Get it right, it is Mr Pandemic who has got the masses afraid of their own shadows.
D.M
Mr Pandemic 2020
I’m the crown shaped Mr Man
With clompy shoes- I stomp stomp stomp
Around supermarkets and theatre spaces and make the air unclean
I inspire vulnerability and create loneliness
Make you hate the places you once loved
Make you afraid of touch
And getting too close
L.W.C
Mrs Pandemic 2020
We still get on well but amidst all the doing
my own work is lost, my headspace is ruined.
I look at my friends, it’s all the same story
Lockdown is here in housewifely glory.
S.L
Shielding 2020
So that I do not lose the essence of who I am
I will just be who I am now in this moment
As we do not own tomorrows
G.R
Art of Idleness
The Corona Pandemic has created disaster, turbulence and havoc the world over. Social-distancing, Isolation, Quarantine and lock-down are the buzz phrases of the era.
But this Ms. Pandemic has given us a rare opportunity to pause and ponder; to wait and relax and wait patiently for every minute to pass. There is no need to have the account of time. Do everything (or nothing) at your own speed.
This has provided me with a new branch of Art: The Art of Idleness. “My day and night myself I make, whenever I sleep or play.”
M.R
Mr Pandemic 2020
It is just so quiet for a Wednesday morning,
You’ve changed everything, seemingly overnight,
It has been a long and wet winter,
And you decide to come at the same time as Blue skies and,
Sunlight.
J.R
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. I enjoyed writing it.
As we mentioned above, we have moved Space to Write over to Zoom and we would love it if you joined us. Details and booking below. You can also see the link to our Meetup Zoom Free Flow Fridays. Hope to see you at one of our workshops soon.
Take care,
Nichola x
Zoom Space to Write with Creative Writes, Mondays 3pm
