Reflections drawing deeper

 

Reflections drawing deeper

"Unfinished Poems" at Buxton Museum

Part 2

trilobites are rare in Derbyshire fossils - even rarer in rockpools like this!

Our Unfinished Poems postcards at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery continue to provoke the poetry in visitors to the museum….

The latest set of poems follows. If you would like to add your own, simply use the Unfinished Poem lines here (or in the earlier blog here) and send your poem to Gordon at: toadwords@btinternet.com. We don’t promise to publish everything but if we can, we will

The Derbyshire landscape the Museum collection draws upon (it does have a wider catchment but a lot of our material is local) is a largely Carboniferous one giving us a world of limestone, gritstone, shale sandwiched like cake filling and the weight of ancient coal in the east. Our limestone yields to water, dissolving into spectacular caverns and then slowly crystallising out again into stalactites, stalagmites and wonderful accumulating patterns that grow like strange colonies over their boulder grandparents

LIMESTONE

Ancient waves on forgotten seas

Left seaweed and shells on prehistoric sand

Like an imprinted shadow that never leaves

Their traces of existence stamped firm onto land

As rock built foliage shapely scored

Speaks of life and of treasures expansively forged

(Laura Huxford)

 

crinoid fossils are common

This was the postcard starting point:

Limestone

Ancient waves on forgotten seas,

Left seaweed and shells on prehistoric sand,

(Possibly useful words: trees, free, years, hand, band, land)

CAVES

Rain falls and water drips

Stone dissolves and water seeps,

Chemicals blend and crystals shape,

Colour and light glinting,

Gleaming.

In darkest blackness,                               

The candlelight flaming

(Anon)

 

Foxhole Cave

Rain falls and water drips

Stone dissolves and water seeps

Lime and crystal streams no longer creep

Into earth's sunken saltiness vast and deep

Darkness merges with icy cold blasts

Daylight turning into night that ever lasts

Closeted secrets hidden as shadows sleep

Whispered of time-lost treasures forever keep

(Laura Huxford)

the starting point for the cave poems was:

Caves

Rain falls and water drips

Stone dissolves and water seeps,

(possibly useful words: fossil, crystal, slips, sleeps, keeps, steeps)

COAL MEASURES

Giant dragonfly wings flutter,

Over the swamp of a tree-fern wood

Irridescent flashes awaken muted shade

As silence stands still amongst the forest glade

Flitting across water and onto dry land

Reflections drawing deeper by an unseen hand

(Laura Huxford)

Unfinished starting point:

Coal Measures

Giant dragonfly wings flutter,

Over the swamp of a tree-fern wood,

Useful words: mutter, amphibian, newt, salamander, coal, good, stood, stutter, clutter

 

there is even a Derbyshire fossil dragonfly

As the centuries turned, dissolving limestone layers into caves, new life moved into those caves and the Museum’s Cave Lion skeletal paw, bear skulls, hyena memories and growling stuffed bear, all remind us of the long living history of the land here…

Cave Bear skull in Museum collection

CAVE LIONS

 A bear in the darkness growls,

A lion watches from the cave,

Through the woods, a wolf howls,

Through the night, fire feeds the brave

(Anon)

Bones lie on cave floors,

Gathering dust and dirt through long slow years,

We clean the bones, assemble the paws,

Not knowing the fur, the blood, the tears

(Gordon)

Unfinished poem:

Cave lions

A bear in the darkness growls,

A lion watches from the cave,

(Possibly useful words: brave, save, prowls, howls)

Most of these poems remain anonymous and we recognise the rights of the named poets of the other poems. We must ask you to respect this and not to reprint them without acknowledging that poet and first publication here in this blog. If you want to reprint poems in physical or other form for sale, please contact Gordon MacLellan at the toadwords email above for written permission.

Plagues, kites and other delights!

Flying kites, festering sores and other delights!

Summer activities and winter plans

Rudheath and Witton 2017

a single stalk of grass can set an activity in motion

horrible ailments proved remarkably popular!

After a summer of liveliness, in the Rudheath and Witton Do It Together project we are turning towards autumn and thinking of winter activities

Over the summer season, we saw the completion of the first of the Lost Tales of Rudheath (with Rudheath Primary Academy) and of art and story workshops at Victoria Road Primary School. In public events we made, flew and crashed a few kites, gave people horrible diseases with associated horrible medieval cures and catastrophes. We made small fluttering windsocks and delicate mobiles of natural materials. In public events we met more than 200 local residents and through school sessions including children and visiting parents,  another 400 folk joined the ranks of the “Did It Together”!

small corners inspired small stories

Our aim is to plan and deliver creative events: inviting people to try something new, preferably something that we hope they can go away and try again. So we have used everyday materials where possible, worked in familair places that people can come back to and used technqiues that are quick to learn and easy to transfer

Now we are looking at a colder season and new ideas. We have some thoughts and hope and plans but would like to hear from our Rudheath and Witton friends about other things they would like to do.

Our plans include the following: if you have other thoughts - or particularly like the look of any of these (or don’t like the look…) please let us know! Either leave a comment here or through our facebook page or by email: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

the richness of autumn

Celebrating the seasons and the special qualities of Rudheath and Witton

•     outdoor art with natural objects at Grozone
•     a wintry storywalk
•     lantern making: the lights of Rudheath: capturing buildings, shapes, people, activities, the sculptures in Griffiths Park
•     small lights for houses: join us to hold onto miniature moments of Rudheath in tiny lanterns for table tops and corners, small treasures for the dark evenings
•     an evening walk with lanterns and maybe some carol-singing in December
•     Rudheath stories 2: collecting memories, writing poems and stories, working with artefacts from Weaver Hall Museum to remind of activities, games, dreams and promises
•     maybe finding the next of the Lost Tales

last lights of autumn

Who to work with

• anyone!
  everyone! 
• older residents
• new friends: Witton Church Walk C of E Primary School
• Victoria Road and Rudheath Academy Primary Schools - who feel like old friends
• families
• nursery age children either in groups or with parents

Where to do things!

•     outside? Roker Park, Griffiths Park, the smaller green spaces among streets
•     The Venue
•     Social Club
•     in the schools
•     any other suggestions?

First activities will start in October and run through October, November and December - so get in touch soon!

The Chicken Cake Bird

The Holly Lodge Centre

Richmond Park

August 2017

birds in the bushes

And down in the woods, something stirred: or rather somethings: small birds, woodland lanterns, occasional pirates, treasure chests, more birds, nests and perches, pirate galleons we had them all during a week at Holly Lodge centre in Richmond Park

Working with children and young people with additional needs, with support groups and family networks, with life-limiting conditions and smiles, we had a lively week of activities

I think the poem we wrote with children from Knots Arts sums up the sense of adventure and inquiry and degree of silliness very well

"all of the children were raving about (the brilliant day) on the way home!
It was so lovely to just let them be able to play and explore " Knots Arts

printing: the growing landscape of the Park

LOOKING FOR BIRDS IN RICHMOND PARK

Come into the Park,
Across a big field,
Behind a big tree,
Look up into the sky
Into the clouds,
And there you might …
You might see some big, black Crows
Watching you.

Keep walking.

On the very edge,
Of the very end,
Next to the pond,
If you are lucky,
You might see Fury the Phoenix.

Keep walking.

When you get to the Centre,
Go outside, through the window
Climb over the house,
Walk between the yellow birds,
Carefully, carefully between the yellow birds,
Look in the leaves at the top of the tree
There you might see the Chicken Cake Bird.

And in the woods
You might hear,

A bird in a tree.
I followed that bird and found
An Owl’s House
When the Owl was sleeping.

Under the roof,
Under a bush,
Across the water,
I found some sticks and blackberries,
I found a fallen feather and some leaves,
And a fairy cup for the birds to drink out of.

And there I heard the birds talking,
Singing the Song of the Beautiful Nest.

“Wood and leaves and bark and berries,
Leaves and wood and really cool sticks,
Tiny green leaves and blackberries
Will make a beautiful nest”.

Holly Lodge Centre 21st August 2017
created by children 5 - 8 years old from Knots Arts during the Creeping Toad Arts Week of workshops, 2017

with many thanks to the young people, staff and families of Knots Arts; Me, You and Co; Crossroads and Momentum

Wild words and leafy pages: training course

 

Wild words and leafy pages

4th October 2017
9.30am - 4.30pm
Dartington Estate, Totnes
£75 | £95 | £120 *

I am leading this day for Wildwise - contact them for bookings but details follow:

playful creativity

A day to play with words, this workshop encourages participants to find “adventures everywhere”... anywhere. It will offer activities designed to draw inspiration from simple observation, fostering confidence in participants own skills and encouraging innovation within supportive activity structures. The activities used will also allow ideas to merge as a number of short activities flow together to give longer more intricate adventures
The activities used here have been tried and tested with family groups, on adult events and with school children - often in situations where Literacy is an issue and activities are needed that remove worry and fear and encourage simple enjoyment of words

Programme will include:

• first words: setting out on an adventure 
• adventures everywhere: short activities with minimal equipment for use outside 
• holding onto adventures: ways of recording our words 
• bigger stories: working in groups to make quick, longer pieces

celebrate wonder

Activity options:

• developing story characters,
• deriving adventures from found objects or artefacts
• making your own books
• the value of treasure
• story bundles

* rates for individuals / charities / businesses

For late availability and/or last minute bookings please call 07919 093784
 BOOK NOW: here