Well red was the colour used for inspiration at the second poetry workshop I’ve attended run by Anne-Marie Fyfe. She is popular poet and an enthusiastic tutor and reads three poems connected with the colour to get us going. We discuss this briefly, then brainstorm the cliches concerning red. ‘Red Sky at night’ etc consider the different names given to red in a paint box, think of everyday things that are red, warning signs, pillar boxes etc.
Already our notes are growing rapidly, our minds dancing off in all directions. She reads some more poems and a series of prompts to which we write responses. We use a surreal picture to explore some different ideas.
We stop for a lunch break when Troubadour will bring orders for drinks and snacks up to the poetry room. I noticed that they have an award from ‘Relais Routier’ so no wonder their food is so good.
After lunch we get going on a more extensive poem based on all this inspiration.
We all read something back and are genuinely impressed by our efforts and diversity of images and ideas.
I am getting a bit tired these days and realise coming up from Brighton again to the regular Troubabour poetry tomorrow will be out of the question. Never mind I am squirreling away all these goodies to sustain me during the winter months, when sometimes if it snows we are marooned. I’ll sign up again in the Spring.
Ann Perrin 