I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets to see Sean O’Casey’s Shadow of a Gunman at the Lyric yesterday. My son and I tuned our ears to the rapid Dublin dialogue and enjoyed watching the humour and tragedy burst from the stage.
I can’t claim to closely identify with the tortured poet struggling to complete his poem amidst the mayhem around him, but I still get a kick out of expressing myself in words.
I described myself at the writing workshop that evening as someone writing doggerel and trying to pass it off as poetry. There were plenty of real writers at the workshop, some who acted as community facilitators to help local people with writing projects. Jan Carson was our facilitator, a published writer of the magical realism genre. She put us at our ease and helped us to conjure up some words on the theme of ‘place’.
Afterwards, outside the workshop venue, I bombarded Russell, one of the participants, with far too many personal anecdotes. He didn’t seem to mind, so I may have got away with it.
Two more Wednesday evening workshops and we should have produced the polished final draft. Our efforts may appear in a booklet, but that is not the goal for me; I appreciate the feedback and listening to how others engage in the writing process.
odespinner 