back to Totleigh Barton

arvonseptember16_4224

two weeks ago I was at the Arvon retreat, the old farmhouse at Totleigh Barton in Devon, for the excitingly named Poetry as a Controlled Explosion creative writing course with Jane Draycott and Jack Underwood

arvonseptember16_4270

this was different from the Ann and Peter Sansom course, in which we wrote in eight exercises each morning and generated masses of material.

arvonseptember16_4271

instead we looked at how to make our poems more explosive and then how to control them (to some extent) and the exercises were two or three a morning with more time to work the poems out.

arvonseptember16_4269

I have at least six good ones, I think.

arvonseptember16_4268

we were luckier with the weather than in May. early mornings were misty, and developed into days of sun and cloud

arvonseptember16_4265

which allowed sitting outside to write and eat lunch by the end of the week.

arvonseptember16_4262

I think I have more idea about how to push my poems in different directions

arvonseptember16_4243

the Devon landscape is inspiring, but so were the people on the course.

arvonseptember16_4255

there were a couple of young mentees of the Poetry Business, both at Oxbridge, and three other youngsters, and three published poets.

arvonseptember16_4257

some spectacular writing was done

arvonseptember16_4246

and some bonding

arvonseptember16_4245

a lot of walking, along the banks of the Torridge

arvonseptember16_4235

into Sheepwash, the nearest village

arvonseptember16_4217

I think this is an addictive experience and I am very likely to visit Totleigh Barton again next year.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.