| Wendy French was one of our invited guests
for Time Bank's 2006 National Poetry Day celebrations,
hosted by the West Euston Time Bank Purple Poets.
Circa 2006, she was the poetry tutor for Hexagon
(2003-2006) and is now the poetry tutor for Hour Bank, Bromley. She
is former head of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School where she led
an arts based curriculum as she believes in the healing power of the arts.
She left this post in order to develop poetry and writing in healthcare settings
and is currently the chairperson of Lapidus.
Wendy is the author of two pamphlets: Sky Over Bedlam and We Have
A Little Sister And She Hath No Breasts (from tall-lighthouse). She has
also edited two Rockingham anthologies of hospital children's poems -- Dog
Bark (for the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School) and What's Your
Problem? (for the Guys Hospital Evelina School). Her first full collection,
Splintering the Dark was published to great acclaim by Rockingham
Press in 2005.
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ERRANDS
by Wendy French
and on the ground the purple flower
(Sappho Fragment 105A)
At Goudhurst I stop and buy Green Tea
before entering the churchyard.
Here graves are not guarded by statues.
I leave no money to ward off evil spirits.
I unpick stitches of your last morning;
you leave the boat for that errand, tea half-drunk.
As I walk to your plot an old school-bus stops
at the end of the lane, collects children
for home. Symbols on Taipei's dilapidated buses
had been impossible to decipher
and we ran, laughed, not knowing
how to recognise signs that we needed.
I could walk to your grave blindfolded.
The ground needs to settle in a way you never did.
You found our bus by holding up the paper
to an elderly man who led us forward.
The driver took his fare out of our purse
and we were on our way to buy bean curd.
We rode through shadowed landscapes -
hills rising out of earthquaked lands.
The tofu in the market made our stomachs heave.
Here, stillness, head stones.
Steps on concrete the only winter sound
and I walk alone, carry one small tree.
© Wendy French
from her first published book
Splintering the Dark
Rockingham Press, 2005 |
WEBSITES FEATURING WENDY FRENCH'S WORK:
Poetry P F:
http://www.poetrypf.co.uk/wendyfrenchpage.html
the tall-lighthouse
www.tall-lighthouse.co.uk/
Rockingham Press
www.rockingham-press.co.uk/
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PURPLE POETS
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This is an educational site.
© resides with the author. All rights reserved.
West Euston Purple Poets
Writer-in-Residence
Kim Morrissey.
For permission to use any of this material
please contact the West Euston Time
Bank.
CONTACT ADDRESSES
West Euston Time Bank
www.westeustontimebank.org.uk
info@westeustontimebank.org.uk
For more information about any of our projects
phone Tony Bloor: +44-(0)20 7383 4922
West Euston Third Age
Project
http://www.thirdageproject.org.uk/
info@thirdageproject.org.uk
Crypt Centre
Munster Square
West Euston
London NW1 3PL
0207 383 4922
H-Pod events
Cumberland Market
0207 387 4382
Our Workshop Facilitators:
Tony Bloor, Nurjahan Urmi, Josie Nakos
Our Time Bank Broker:
(as of August 2009, on maternity leave)
Shahanara Begum
Our Writer-in-Residence
Kim Morrissey
The Purple Poets meet
almost every Thursday at the Crypt
between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
(phone to confirm there is a session)
(0)20 7383 4922
The West Euston Time Bank Purple Poets Poetry Workshop
was founded in 2005 and supported by, amongst others,
The Arts Council,The Carnegie Trust,
The Third Age Project, and the new economics foundation.
WETB is affiliated with Time Banking UK (Stroud).
TBUK
Time Banking UK,
The Exchange,
Brick Row,
Stroud GL5 1DF
Tel: 01453 750952
info@timebanks.co.uk
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WEST EUSTON TIME BANK
Crypt Centre
Munster Square
West Euston
London NW1 3PL
Tel: 0207 383 4922
info@westeustontimebank.org.uk
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THIRD AGE PROJECT
Crypt Centre
Munster Square
West Euston
London NW1 3PL
Tel: 0207 383 4922
info@thirdageproject.org.uk
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