POETRY WORKSHOP

Poetry Workshop has been in existence since the Stroud Branch started; some of the original members are still going strong and writing well. Working together, we get to know each other well - if you write honestly, you reveal quite a lot of yourself. I think we all feel it is a privilege to share our work.

We meet once a month on the second Tuesday, and our pattern remains much the same: we have 'homework' to read, share and criticise (if that's the right word for the appreciation, encouragement and suggestions for improvement that go on!) and we usually do a bit of 'Instant Writing' just to remind ourselves that we are a workshop, and we often look at a modern poem, discuss it, perhaps use its theme or verse form as a model for 'homework'. I am always amazed and delighted by the varied interpretations of a subject!

Sometimes we are asked to read for a U3A occasion and we always enjoy this. We have also published some of our work ('Tuesday Afternoons' and 'Second Tuesdays') and individual members of the group have had work published, but that is incidental, the group is really about helping each other to be better poets - which sounds very serious and worthy! We have a lot of fun doing it!

Sheila Simmons

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TOO LATE!

Too late to do
The things I meant to do!
The places I have dreamt of seeing,
People I had hoped to meet,
Wonders that I wished to witness,
Tales that now I'll never tell.

That's the worst
Of growing old!
Time that stretched out
Endlessly when young
Now remorselessly
Takes hold.

Not only time,
But energy and will,
Sapped drop by drop
As days click by
With mundane tasks
Leaving no gaps to fill.

And yet, while still
I have my mind,
Past joys illuminate
The darkest hours,
And precious-eyesight
Gives me gardens
Of delight.

Sheila Maddock