OTHER MUSINGS
DMA FUTURE WRITERS’
Each DMA Future Writers’ Lab begins with a challenge: reframe a topic. Mine was ‘Age’. Cluttered with shoulda-woulda-coulda, the value British culture applies to age is mess – and we often add our own complexities and comparisons.
I wanted to see how much we can tell from snippets of someone’s life – whether the individual moments make sense together and who they conjure. After interviewing a neighbour, I wrote a three-piece exploration of the stories she told. Each a layer of where she’s been, who she’s seen, how she lived her life. Each a beautiful nugget she openly shared, reliving moments of her past. I hope I’ve done her credit.
The verses aim to be disconnected, to make the reader contemplate the origin of the opening quotes – could they belong to the same person?
FRACTURES OF LIFE: A TRIPTYCH, ARTICULATED.
MENTORING WITH THE GDST
“MENTOR,
BIG SISTER
&FRIEND”
INSIDE MY MIND
SOMETIMES,A CUP OF TEA IS A CRY FOR HELP.
— Recognise the signs. Make space for each other.
a comment might be the catalyst, but it isn’t the cause.
— Self-blame and a sense of fault is evident in grief.
IT TAKES A DONOR MINUTES TO FILL A BAG OF BLOOD.
IT TAKES A STAB WOUND SECONDS TO NEED IT.
– Drive younger people to give blood by highlighting situations when people their age may need it. Could use local news reports to make it feel close to home. Crime might be out of your control, but helping save lives isn’t.
on an aeroplane, commanded to sit in your seat. must get to the magical microwave. with loved ones – that’s the only way out.
— Dreams are strange.